Search and annoy: Google’s secret tracking exposed in probe

Google is facing a blockbuster court showdown in coming months.

Australian Competition and Consumer Commission Chairman Rod Sims. Picture: AAP

Google is facing a blockbuster court showdown in coming months, after Australia’s consumer and competition watchdog launched world-first action alleging the tech giant took sensitive user data without proper consent.

The Australian Competition & Consumer Commission claimed that over a period of years Google combined personal information from users with their browsing activities on non-Google websites, without their knowledge or consent.

The alleged behaviour affects millions of Australians with Google mail and app accounts, and ACCC chair Rod Sims said the company had caused “significant harm” with its privacy practices.

The upcoming Federal Court trial is expected to be closely watched as regulators around the world increasingly crack down on the market power of technology companies.

“This could well set a precedent internationally,” Mr Sims told The Australian on Monday.

“This is certainly going to trial, there’s no doubt about that.”

While the legal claim is focused on the search giant, it goes to the heart of the business model of other Silicon Valley social media titans: that is, to scoop up data from billions of unsuspecting users around the world and sell it to advertisers in a way that targets the individual.

The ACCC is seeking a fine “in the millions”. Mr Sims said the ACCC decided to take action after learning during its digital platforms inquiry last year the sheer size and scale of sensitive information Google was gathering about its users. He said the watchdog conducted surveys that found more than 80 per cent of Australians did not want their browsing and web activity combined with their personally identifiable information.

In its digital platforms inquiry finalised last year the ACCC found the tech giants favour their own business interests through their market power. It concluded that Google and Facebook had almost unfettered market power when it came to ¬online advertising.

“Since we’ve been working on this, we’ve had more issues coming up,” he said. “And we’ll make judgments about issues we see, either under competition law or consumer law, where we think there’s real harm and where we think they matter. It’s fair to say there’ll be more.

“I can’t give you the timing of those and I can’t tell you how many, but where we think it’s important we’ll certainly be taking on more matters.”

The ACCC alleged Google misled consumers about its move in 2016 to start combining personal information in consumers’ Google accounts with information about those individuals’ activities on non-Google sites that used Google technology to display ads.

This meant data about users’ non-Google online activity became linked to their names and other identifying information held by Google. This data would then be used to show the user-targeted ads. Previously, this had been kept separately from users’ Google accounts, meaning data was not linked to an individual user.

“We are taking this action because we consider Google misled Australian consumers about what it planned to do with large amounts of their personal information, including internet activity on websites not connected to Google,” Mr Sims said.

“Google significantly increased the scope of information it collected about consumers on a personally identifiable basis. This included potentially very sensitive and private information about their activities on third-party websites. It then used this information to serve up highly targeted advertisements without consumers’ express informed consent. The use of this new combined information allowed Google to increase significantly the value of its advertising products, from which it generated much higher profits.”

Alleged behaviour

The alleged behaviour relates to a Google “I agree” pop-up, from June 2016 until at least December 2018, in which users were prompted with information on how Google would use their data. The ACCC alleges the “I agree” notification was misleading, as consumers could not have properly understood changes Google was making nor how data would be used, and so could not give informed consent.

A spokesman said Google would defend its actions in court. “In June 2016, we updated our ads system and associated user controls to match the way people use Google products across many different devices,” he said.

“The changes we made were optional. We asked users to consent via prominent and easy-to-understand notifications. If a user did not consent, their experience of our products and services remained unchanged. We have co-operated with the ACCC’s investigation … We strongly disagree with their allegations.”

Labor communications spokeswoman Michelle Rowland said, “anyone who has experienced that spooky feeling of being served targeted ads after browsing the internet should welcome moves by the ACCC to ensure Australian law is being upheld”.

The government was contacted for comment.