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BISMARCK — North Dakota will receive $4.1 million from Google as part of a massive settlement with the tech giant over its improper tracking of customers, said Attorney General Drew Wrigley on Tuesday, Nov. 29.
Google will have to pay $391.5 million to 40 states according to the agreement, which Wrigley called "the largest multistate Attorney General privacy settlement in the history of the U.S."
Investigators found that Google was recording the movements of customers even when users explicitly asked not to be tracked. The "deceptive" practice amounted to a consumer protection issue, Wrigley said.
The settlement requires Google to be more clear with users about its location-tracking practices.
“This historic settlement not only limits Google’s retention and use of North Dakota users’ data, but also allows consumers to make informed decisions about their data,” Wrigley said in a news release.
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Google, by far the most popular search engine on the web, is one of world's biggest companies. Its parent company, Alphabet, is worth well over $1 trillion.
