Even though we prefer to think about it differently, the truth is that our world is a very volatile place. This has been proved time and time again. In fact, a few of these occasions have even triggered some irreversible damage within the world’s fabric, thus prompting us to formulate a concrete response. Our response will come in the form of close regulation throughout the spectrum. By regulating every major area, we positioned ourselves in such a way that we suddenly had the best possible view of all the activities taking place around us. The move paid off big time, but soon enough, it was driving straight into certain roadblocks. Talk about roadblocks for seamless regulation, and you have to mention technology. You see, technology broke on to the scene with features that were just perfect for every rule breaker out there. Nevertheless, the scenario has fortunately changed now. As the governing forces get more and more comfortable around handling different tech products, it is directly reducing the loopholes any rule breaker could previously exploit. To get an example of this reinvented approach, we can look at one recent lawsuit against Google.
District of Columbia, along with three other states, has officially filed a lawsuit against Google for deceptive collection of location data on Android. According to a few reports, the complaint talks to how Google’s complex settings make it hard for an individual to figure out whether the company has access to their location data at a given time or not. Wait, there is more to it. The recently-filed complaint even claims that Google uses “repeated nudging, misleading pressure tactics, and evasive and deceptive descriptions” to push the users into sharing more information. Accusing the search giant of violating DC’s Consumer Protection Procedures Act, the latest allegations build upon a whole another lawsuit against Google that was put-forth in 2020 by Arizona Attorney General.
“Google falsely led consumers to believe that changing their account and device settings would allow customers to protect their privacy and control what personal data the company could access,” said DC Attorney General, Karl Racine in a statement. “The truth is that contrary to Google’s representations it continues to systematically surveil customers and profit from customer data.”
Google, however, have denied all the claims. When asked about the company’s response to the lawsuit, this is what Google’s spokesperson, José Castañeda said:
“The attorneys general are bringing a case based on inaccurate claims and outdated assertions about our settings. We have always built privacy features into our products and provided robust controls for location data.”
Apart from DC, Washington, Texas, and Indiana are the states filing the same suit in their respective jurisdictions.