Google ordered to pay $43M fine by Australian regulator for misleading users
Sean Gallup

Google (NASDAQ:GOOG) (NASDAQ:GOOGL) has been ordered to pay a fine of A$60M or $42.7M by a Federal Court after Australia's competition regulator found that the tech giant had mislead users regarding their personal data being collected.
According to a release from the Australian Competition & Consumer Commission, the Court previously found that Google LLC and Google Australia had breached Australia's Consumer Law by saying that some Android users that the "Location History" setting was the only Google (GOOG) (GOOGL) account that Google collected, kept and used personally identifiable data when in fact the setting "Web & App Activity" was also used.
Web & App Activity was turned on by default.
âThis significant penalty imposed by the Court today sends a strong message to digital platforms and other businesses, large and small, that they must not mislead consumers about how their data is being collected and used,â ACCC Chair Gina Cass-Gottlieb said in the statement.
The court said Google (GOOG) (GOOGL) mislead the customers between January 2017 and December 2018, though the tech giant took steps by December 20, 2018 to fix the issue.
It is estimated that 1.3M Google (GOOG) (GOOGL) users in Australia were affected.
Both the ACCC and Google (GOOG) (GOOGL) agreed that the $42.7M fine against Google LLC was appropriate and no fine should be imposed upon Google Australia.
Earlier this week, it was reported that Google Fiber (GOOG) (GOOGL) was planning its biggest expansion in years, with a further push into five additional U.S. states.