Source: Google's location privacy practices are under investigation in Arizona, in probe initiated by the AG a week after a bombshell report about the practice
Google's alleged practice of recording location data about Android device owners even when they believe they have opted … Tweets: @tonyromm Tweets: Tony Romm / @tonyromm : SCOOP: Google's location tracking practices are under investigation by Arizona's attorney general, per source. Redacted documents signal as much and the AG's office, while not confirming it's Google, strongly hinted as much. Could result in fines. http://www.washingtonpost.com/ ...
Context & Ripple Effects
This 2018 scoop is the opening move of an arc that ran four years: a week after a report exposed that Android kept recording location even when users believed tracking was off, Arizona's attorney general opened this probe. It escalated into a formal consumer privacy lawsuit in 2020, and later ended in an $85 million settlement.
What made the case stick was discovery: [[a:966864|court documents showed Google had buried the off toggle deep in Android settings and pressed partners like LG to do the same]]. The probe also landed just as state AGs were organizing on Google more broadly, with more than half preparing a joint antitrust investigation a year later.
First-order effects
- Google faces potential fines from Arizona over collecting Android location data after users opted out, and its Web & App Activity disclosures come under legal scrutiny for the first time at the state level.
- Android users who relied on the visible location toggle learn their setting may not have stopped collection, putting Google's consent UX directly in dispute.
Second-order effects
- Other state attorneys general gain a template: Arizona's suit shows a single state can extract eight-figure settlements from Google without waiting on federal action, and Australia's ACCC pursued the same misleading-location-claims theory to a $42.7M settlement.
- Google's OEM partners like LG face pressure over preinstalled tracking defaults, pushing device makers to audit which settings ship enabled.
Third-order effects
- State-level enforcement becomes the de facto regulator of consumer privacy for platforms, with dark-pattern settings design turning into a litigable offense rather than a PR problem.
- Monetary settlements become the standard resolution path for location-data cases, letting Google cap liability while the underlying default-on collection practices persist.
The trend: State attorneys general are emerging as the primary enforcement check on big-platform data collection, using consumer-protection suits to price in practices federal regulators have not stopped.