By Denny Jacob

Washington Attorney General Bob Ferguson on Thursday said Google will pay nearly $40 million to the state in connection with a lawsuit over misleading location tracking practices.

The Alphabet unit will also implement court-ordered forms to increase transparency about its location tracking settings, Ferguson said.

Ferguson filed a lawsuit against Google in January 2022. The investigation into the search giant's conduct was part of a multistate effort, but Ferguson opted to independently filed its own lawsuit.

The lawsuit asserted that Google deceptively led consumers to believe they had control over how their location data was collected and used, Ferguson said, though they couldn't prevent such things.

"Google denied Washington consumers the ability to choose whether the company could track their sensitive location data, deceived them about their privacy options and profited from that conduct," Ferguson said.

The news had little effect on Alpahbet's share price, which rose 1.6% to $122.75 in intraday trading. The stock is on pace for its highest close since April 25, 2022.

A Google spokesman referred to a blog post from November regarding how it manages location data.

Write to Denny Jacob at denny.jacob@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

May 18, 2023 12:50 ET (16:50 GMT)

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