Google will pay$93 million to the State of California to settle a lawsuit accusing it of misleading consumers about how it controls location-based tracking. California Attorney General Rob Bonta announced the settlement on 14 September 2023, addressing allegations that the Alphabet Inc (GOOGL.O) subsidiary misled individuals into thinking they had authority over Google's collection and utilization of their personal information.

It was also alleged that Google has been able to 'profile' users and target them with ads even when they have turned off the 'location history' feature and misled people about the ability to block ads they don't want. The settlement also requires Google to disclose more about how it tracks people's whereabouts and what it does with the data it collects, among other steps to improve user privacy.

Judge Bonta emphasized that it is unacceptable for big tech companies like Google to mislead their users for the company's commercial benefit. According to Reuters, Google is reported to have made$110.9 billion in advertising revenue in the first half of 2023, accounting for 81 percent of its total revenue of$137.7 billion. In November last year, Google agreed to a$391.5 million settlement of similar charges by 40 US states.