The Justice Department will try to prove Google has been abusing the power of its search engine to stifle competition in ways that discouraged innovation.The Mountain View-based company receives a good chunk of its revenue through location-based advertising because advertisers want to market to users based on where they’re located. The company uses location data to create behavior profiles of its users to figure out which advertisements are best.
Bonta alleged in a complaint that Google deceived users by falsely telling them if they turned off the “location history” setting on their browser that their location data wouldn’t be stored. According to the complaint, Google continued to store users’ location data even after the setting was turned off. Google also allegedly falsely told users they could opt out of advertisements tailored to their location.
Under the settlement, Google will also be required to become more transparent about location tracking, show more information to users when they enable location-related settings and provide more information through a “location technologies” webpage that would include information about location data, according to the release.The company will be required to disclose to users if Google uses location history data to build ad profiles.