The agency reached a settlement earlier this month with databroker, Outlogic banning it from sharing or selling sensitive location information.Google (or everyone else with a connection to your computer) can do a traceroute, which shows them all (public) IP adresses and hostnames of the steps between you and them. The complaint follows increased scrutiny by the FTC against sensitive location data tracking. “A pinky promise from Google to protect our location information is not enough to protect that data,” she said. Sara Geoghegan, counsel at EPIC, said that while the policy change is a promising start, the FTC needs to use its authorities to enforce data-protection rules. The move is poised to have significant implications for law enforcement access to data through geofence warrants, a form of location-based digital surveillance. “Consumers do not benefit from misleading statements about or the misuse of their highly sensitive location data.”Īlthough Google did promise to delete its existing data, it only announced in December that it was changing the ‘location history’ feature on Google Maps so that data will be kept only on users’ devices, making Google unable to see it. ![]() “Google’s failure to comply with its public promises to promptly delete certain location records offers no countervailing benefits to consumers or competition that outweigh its harms,” EPIC wrote in its complaint. The device she was carrying did not approve tracking via Google’s location history tool, according to the complaint.ĮPIC asked the FTC to impose civil penalties, require Google to delete any location data indicating a user visited a covered medical facility, and force the company to adopt data-minimization practices “with meaningful oversight.” Her search query and mapping directions remained in her location history for more than 30 days after the visit. In one case, an Accountable Tech staff member traveled from Cleveland, Ohio, to a Planned Parenthood in Pittsburgh, Penn., eight weeks after Google’s 2022 policy shift, according to the filing. The complaint detailed Google’s continued tracking habit after it vowed to delete the sensitive location data “ soon after you visit.” “We are upholding our promise to delete particularly personal places from Location History if these places are identified by our systems - any claims that we’re not doing so are patently false or misguided,” a Google spokesperson wrote in an email. The complaint says that practice puts Google afoul of its 2011 FTC Consent order agreeing to not misrepresent how it maintains and protects the privacy of data including physical location. The findings, first reported by The Guardian, followed a similar Accountable Tech analysis in 2022 finding that Google was still retaining the data weeks after the announced policy change. The complaint was also signed by the nonprofit tech watchdog project Accountable Tech, which found in November 2023 that in eight experiments across the country, Google retained abortion seekers’ location data about half of the time. Such data can “lead to criminal prosecution and unduly discourage individuals from seeking vital health care services,” EPIC wrote. ![]() The collection of location data can cause “substantial injury” to consumers because it can reveal sensitive personal practices, including visits to abortion clinic visits or houses of worship, according to the complaint. The complaint follows ongoing reporting that Google has continued to collect location data for users visiting abortion clinics and other sensitive locations, despite promises by the tech giant in July 2022 that it would delete those records. ![]() ![]() unit for “unfair and deceptive trade practices” around how it handles the data. The Electronic Privacy Information Center, a nonprofit privacy research and advocacy group, is asking the FTC to investigate the Alphabet Inc. Google hasn’t followed through on promises to delete sensitive user-location information, including visits to abortion clinics, according to a complaint filed with the Federal Trade Commission Thursday and provided to Bloomberg Law.
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