Australian regulator files privacy suit against Google

An Australian regulator has filed a lawsuit against Alphabet Inc’s Google, accusing it of misleading smartphone users about how it collected and used personal location data, advancing a global crackdown on the world’s biggest tech firms.

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) said the local Google unit did not tell users of its Android operating system for almost two years that they needed to switch off two settings – not one – if they did not want the company to keep their information.

“Google’s conduct caused users to understand that personal data about their location was not being obtained by Google when in fact personal data was being obtained,” the ACCC wrote in a Federal Court filing on Tuesday, which it published on its website.