North Dakota and Minnesota among 40 states to share $391.5M settlement related to Google's location-tracking practices

(Fargo, ND) -- Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison announced Monday that he and a bipartisan coalition of 40 attorneys general have reached a $391.5 million multi-state settlement with Google over its location-tracking practices relating to Google Account settings. This is the largest multi-state privacy settlement that attorneys general have ever reached. Minnesota will receive $8,251,975.29 from the settlement.  

“Big Tech companies need to be clear with us about when they’re collecting our location data and what they’re using for. They shouldn’t be able to collect it when we’ve told them not to. But this is what Google did,” Attorney General Ellison said. “Consumers should be able to control whether their online information — including their exact locations — are tracked and monetized. Minnesota joined a bipartisan coalition of 40 states to investigate Google when it became clear they lied to consumers about whether they were tracking consumers’ locations. That was wrong and we couldn’t let it continue, so we took action that resulted in this historic settlement.” 

The attorneys general opened the Google investigation following a 2018 Associated Press article that revealed Google “records your movements even when you explicitly tell it not to.” 

Attorneys general from North Dakota and South Dakota participated in the suit.  There is no word yet on how much those states will receive in the settlement.