Attorney General Mark Brnovich from Arizona initiated a probe against search giant Google to investigate its consumer location tracking after an August research from Associated Press.
After analyzing the behavior of multiple Google services running on Android and iOS smartphones, Associated Press found out that Google will still keep collecting location data even when the Location History option is disabled.
Google explains this issue on its support website saying that "this setting does not affect other location services on your device, like Google Location Services and Find My Device. Some location data may be saved as part of your activity on other services, like Search and Maps."
According to the public filing, the Attorney General wants to look into Google's "storage of consumer location data, tracking of consumer location, and other consumer tracking through smartphone operating systems even when consumers turn off "location services" and take other steps to stop such tracking."
Google might face a more significant probe if other states follow suit
The Washington Post mentions in a report that Brnovich's action could prompt the federal government as well as other states to also follow suit, looking closer into Google's privacy practices.
While under fire for tracking their users' location, Google provides detailed instructions on how to delete your location history on its support website in the "Manage or delete your Location History" support article.
This, at least, should make it easier to clean your tracks when and if you decide to completely remove all location data Google has collected about you on their servers.
We also have a comprehensive tutorial on how to disable all Google location tracking options from your account if you want to block it from harvesting your location data and using it to "get better results and recommendations on Google products."
