Google Faces Lawsuit over Secret Location Tracking

Google is facing a lawsuit over the discovery of secret location tracking, which even tracked users who turned the “location history” option off.

According to Ars Technica, “Google quietly edited its description of the practice on its own website — while continuing said practice — clarify that ‘some location data may be saved as part of your activity on other services, like Search and Maps.'”

Because of the controversy, Google is now facing a lawsuit from a man who claims the company violated the California Invasion of Privacy Act.

“In the lawsuit, which was filed in federal court last Friday in San Francisco, attorneys representing a man named Napoleon Patacsil argued that Google is violating the California Invasion of Privacy Act and the state’s constitutional right to privacy,” Ars Technica reported. “The lawsuit seeks class-action status, and it would include both an ‘Android Class’ and ‘iPhone Class’ for the potential millions of people in the United States with such phones who turned off their Location History and nonetheless had it recorded by Google.”

This month, it was reported that Google had been tracking its users’ physical movements through their smartphones even if they selected privacy settings which are supposed to stop the company from doing so.