Australian consumer watchdog sues Google over location data

CANBERRA, Australia — The Australian consumer watchdog is taking Google to court alleging the technology giant broke consumer law by misleading Android users about how their location data was used.

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission on Tuesday accused Google of collecting information on users’ whereabouts even after they switched off the location setting.

The commission began proceedings in the Federal Court of Australia alleging Google breached the law through a series of on-screen representations made as users set up Google accounts on their Android mobile phones and tabloids.

Google said it was reviewing the allegations. /kga