Iowa, Minnesota, South Dakota Part of Google Lawsuit Settlement

(Updated to include South Dakota's share of the settlement) 

Four years after Google sued over its location tracking practices, the tech giant has agreed to pay nearly $400 million in damages to 40 states, including Iowa, Minnesota, and South Dakota.

It is the largest multistate attorney general privacy settlement in the history of the United States.

At issue was Google's location sharing, which the company told mobile phone customers could be disabled on their devices. But a 2018 lawsuit filed by a number of attorneys general alleged that Google was continuing to track and collect location data, which was then used to sell advertising.

Get our free mobile app

Oregon and Nebraska led the settlement negotiations and were assisted by Arkansas, Florida, Illinois, Louisiana, New Jersey, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, and Tennessee.

Iowa, Minnesota, and South Dakota later joined the final settlement along with Alabama, Alaska, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Georgia, Hawaii, Idaho, Kansas, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, Nevada, New Mexico, New York, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, and Wisconsin.

Iowa will receive $6.17 million from the settlement.

Minnesota will receive $8.3 million.

South Dakota will receive $4.2 million.

A 2018 Associated Press article revealed that Google accounts had a pair of settings: Location History and Web & App Activity.

Location History is disabled unless a user turns on the setting, but Web & App Activity is automatically activated when users set up a Google account.

As part of the settlement, Google has agreed to show additional information to users whenever they turn an account setting 'on' or 'off', making location tracking more easily visible, creating an enhanced 'Location Technologies' webpage, and limiting the use and storage of certain types of location information.