Google’s own engineers were queasy about location tracking of users who disabled it

Google’s own engineers were troubled incidentally the business secretly tracked the movements of people who didn’t wish to be followed until a 2018 Associated Press investigation uncovered the shadowy surveillance, according to unsealed documents in a consumer fraud case.

The behind-the-scenes peek stems from a three-month-old lawsuit against Google filed by Arizona’s attorney general. The files, unsealed late the other day, reveal that Google knew it had an enormous problem on its hands after an AP article published in August 2018 explained how the company continued to track users’ whereabouts even once they had disabled the feature Google called “location history.”

The released documents include internal Google emails and a brand new version of the state’s civil complaint with fewer redactions than the original.

The same day the AP story was published, the company held what one unidentified email correspondent named an “Oh S_-“ meeting to discuss its location tracking tools, in line with the unsealed records in Arizona’s Maricopa County Superior Court. Google also commenced monitoring public a reaction to the AP story, including how it was trending across Facebook, Twitter and other influential online services, the documents show.

Some of Google’s own engineers scolded the business for misleading people about how exactly its location tracking settings worked. “I buy into the article,” one engineer wrote in an especially blunt assessment after the AP story was published. “Location off should mean location off, not aside from this case or that case.”

Another Google engineer wrote, “Indeed we aren’t very good at explaining this to users.” Another concurred that what the company was doing was “definitely confusing from a user viewpoint.”

The release of the emails is embarrassing for a company that tries to build trust with vast amounts of users of free services such as for example maps and online search, which provide the personal information Google can use to focus on ads. Those ads produced a lot more than $130 billion in earnings last year alone.

Google continues to be fighting to keep most of the exhibits and key passages in the lawsuit redacted on the grounds that the contents contain confidential information.

Following the AP article on location tracking came out 2 yrs ago, Google made changes to its privacy settings to create it easier for users to conceal their movements.

But the revisions didn’t deter Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich from opening a study that culminated in his suing Google 90 days ago. The complaint accuses Google of participating in deceptive business practices that duped Arizona consumers, and may potentially result in vast amounts of dollars of penalties if Brnovich prevails.

“The recently unsealed documents reveal statements from Google’s own engineers that are in conflict with what the business has been representing to the public,” Brnovich said in a Wednesday statement.

Google is seeking to dismiss the lawsuit, arguing that the Arizona law only pertains to goods and services that charge consumers. That would exclude free services that draw upon the tracking tools that are in the heart of the lawsuit.

The business also contends that Brnovich, a Republican, may have been prodded to pursue the investigation by Oracle, which has been involved with a long-running legal battle over the rights for some of the program code found in Google’s Android software for smartphones and other cellular devices.

“Privacy controls have always been included in our services and our teams work consistently to discuss and improve them,” Google spokesperson Jose Castaneda said Wednesday. “Regarding location information, we’ve heard feedback, and have worked hard to boost our privacy controls.”