Google deliberately tried to hide privacy settings that keep user's location private, new court documents reveal

New unredacted documents reveal that Google continued to garner location data on its users through several sources even after they opted out of it.

New insights into Google's operations reveal that the company deliberately made it harder for smartphone users to keep their location data private. It even pushed phone makers like LG to hide such settings so users could not use them easily. The information has been revealed through unredacted documents in a lawsuit against Google filed by the Arizona attorney general's office last year. The lawsuit accused Google of illegally collecting location data from smartphone users, even after they specifically opted out of sharing this data. As per the documents, Google continued to collect the location data from users even when they turned off various location-sharing settings. The newly unsealed versions of the documents reveal that Google also tried to hide its techniques for this data collection, thus confusing even its employees.