In response to a protracted legal battle with Australia’s competition watchdog over Google’s misrepresentations about the acquisition of users’ personal location data, the internet giant has agreed to pay $60 million in fines.
The Federal Court of Australia determined in April of last year that Google had violated consumer laws by deceiving certain local customers to believe the corporation was not using mobile devices running Android operating systems to acquire personal information about their whereabouts.
When a user’s location history was turned off but their online and app activity was turned on and one of Google’s applications was utilised, the question at hand was whether it was adequately apparent that Google would still collect and access location data.
Additionally, the corporation was found in violation of two other consumer regulations relating to behaviour that might deceive the public and making false statements regarding the performance qualities of a service.
At the time, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission described the decision as sending a strong message to digital platforms that they must be transparent with their users about the use of their data.
A short Federal Court hearing on Friday heard that the parties had agreed that a $60 million penalty was “fair and reasonable” and that a joint motion had been made before Justice Thomas Thawley.
The court was informed that there may still be questions about the appropriateness of the punishment and if it rendered future behaviour “economically unreasonable.”
Justice Thawley thanked the parties and said that he was confident the fine was within a reasonable range before postponing the matter until later on Friday.