Google has agreed to a $391.5 million settlement with 40 states to resolve an investigation into how the company tracked users’ locations, state attorney generals announced on Monday.
The states’ investigation was sparked by a 2018 Associated Press story, which found that Google continued to track people’s location data even after they opted out of such tracking by disabling a feature the company called “location history.”
The attorney generals called the settlement a historic win for consumers, and the largest multi-state settlement in US history dealing with privacy.
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It comes at a time of mounting unease over privacy and surveillance by tech companies that has drawn growing outrage from politicians and scrutiny by regulators.
“This $391.5 million settlement is a historic win for consumers in an era of increasing reliance on technology,” said Connecticut attorney general William Tong in a statement.
“Location data is among the most sensitive and valuable personal information Google collects, and there are so many reasons why a consumer may opt-out of tracking.”
Google, based in Mountain View, California, said it fixed the problems several years ago.
“Consistent with improvements we’ve made in recent years, we have settled this investigation, which was based on outdated product policies that we changed years ago,” said company spokesperson Jose Castaneda in a statement.
Shares in Google parent, Alphabet Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG)., closed 0.74% lower at $95.70.