Location Tracking | Breaking Cybersecurity News | The Hacker News

Google has agreed to pay $93 million to settle a lawsuit filed by the U.S. state of California over allegations that the company's location-privacy practices misled consumers and violated consumer protection laws. "Our investigation revealed that Google was telling its users one thing – that it would no longer track their location once they opted out – but doing the opposite and continuing to track its users' movements for its own commercial gain," California Attorney General Rob Bonta  said .  The lawsuit is in response to disclosures that the company continued to track users' locations despite stating to the contrary that such information would not be stored if the "Location History" setting was disabled. The complaint filed by California alleged that Google collected location data through other sources and that it deceived users about their ability to opt out of personalized advertisements targeted to their location. With Google making over $220

Google unveiled a slew of new privacy, safety, and security features today at its annual developer conference, Google I/O. The tech giant's latest initiatives are aimed at protecting its users from cyber threats, including phishing attacks and malicious websites, while providing more control and transparency over their personal data. Here is a short list of the newly introduced features - Improved data control and transparency Gmail Dark Web Scan Report Effortlessly Delete Maps Search History AI-Powered Safe Browsing Content Safety API Expansion About this Image Spam View in Google Drive Among the newly introduced features, the first on the list is improved data control and transparency. Google has unveiled an update for its Android operating system that allows users to better control location sharing through apps installed on their devices. "Starting with location data, you will be informed in permission requests when an app shares your information with third-pa

As work ebbs with the typical end-of-year slowdown, now is a good time to review user roles and privileges and remove anyone who shouldn't have access as well as trim unnecessary permissions. In addition to saving some unnecessary license fees, a clean user inventory significantly enhances the security of your SaaS applications. From reducing risk to protecting against data leakage, here is how you can start the new year with a clean user list.  How Offboarded Users  Still  Have Access to Your Apps When employees leave a company, they trigger a series of changes to backend systems in their wake. First, they are removed from the company's identity provider (IdP), which kicks off an automated workflow that deactivates their email and removes access to all internal systems. When enterprises use an SSO (single sign-on), these former employees lose access to any online properties – including SaaS applications – that require SSO for login.  However, that doesn't mean that former employee

Google has agreed to pay a total of $29.5 million to settle two different lawsuits brought by Indiana and Washington, D.C., over its "deceptive" location tracking practices. The search and advertising giant is required to pay  $9.5 million to D.C.  and  $20 million to Indiana  after the states sued the company for charges that the company tracked users' locations without their express consent. The settlement adds to the  $391.5 million  Google agreed to pay to 40 states over similar allegations two months ago. The company is still facing two more location-tracking lawsuits in  Texas  and  Washington . The lawsuits came in response to revelations in 2018 that the internet company continued to track users' whereabouts on Android and iOS through a setting called  Web & App Activity  despite turning  Location History  options off. Google was also accused of employing  dark patterns , which refer to design choices intended to deceive users into carrying out actio

The U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) on Monday said it filed a lawsuit against Kochava, a location data broker, for collecting and selling precise geolocation data gathered from consumers' mobile devices. The complaint alleges that the U.S. company  amasses  a "wealth of information" about users by purchasing data from other data brokers to sell to its own clients. "Kochava then sells customized data feeds to its clients to, among other purposes, assist in advertising and analyzing foot traffic at stores or other locations," the FTC  said . "Among other categories, Kochava sells timestamped latitude and longitude coordinates showing the location of mobile devices." The Idaho-based company advertises itself as a "real-time data solutions company" and the "largest independent data marketplace for connected devices." It also claims its  Kochava Collective  data marketplace provides "premium data feeds, audience targeting, a