Google agreed to a record $391.5 million privacy settlement with a 40-state coalition of attorneys general on Monday for charges that it misled users into thinking they had turned off location tracking in their account settings even as the company continued collecting that information.
Under the settlement, Google will also make its location tracking disclosures clearer starting in 2023.
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The attorneys general said that the agreement was the biggest internet privacy settlement by U.S. states. It capped a four-year investigation into the internet search giant for violating the states’ consumer protection laws.
States have taken an increasingly central role in reining in the power and business models of Silicon Valley corporations, amid a vacuum of action from federal lawmakers.
More than four years after Europe rolled out data privacy rules for its citizens, Congress and regulators have failed to agree to a federal data protection law in the United States. Lawmakers have squabbled over details of privacy proposals, and tech giants have deployed armies of lobbyists to water down or destroy legislation.
