A new subpoena from Missouri's Attorney General is seeking more information on Google's business practices.
“There is strong reason to believe that Google has not been acting with the best interest of Missourians in mind,” state AG Josh Hawley said. “My Office will not stand by and let private consumer information be jeopardized by industry giants, especially to pad their profits.”
The business practices in question are Google’s collection, use, and disclosure of information about Google users and their online activities; Google’s alleged misappropriation of online content from the websites of its competitors; and Google’s alleged manipulation of search results to preference websites owned by Google and to demote websites that compete with Google.
How much does Google know about me, anyway?
Google has more than 70% of the worldwide search market, according to statistics from spring 2017.
So it knows what you are searching for.
And the Missouri Attorney General's office says that is just the beginning. "In addition to online users’ location, device information, cookie data, online queries, and website history, it is estimated that Google has access to 70 percent of all card transactions in the United States."
The Attorney General says Google may be using this information to create an unfair advantage.
Recent actions against Google
This investigation comes on the heels of the EU's record $2.7 billion antitrust fine in June 2017, which the tech giant is appealing.
"The European Commission has fined Google €2.42 billion for breaching EU antitrust rules. Google has abused its market dominance as a search engine by giving an illegal advantage to another Google product, its comparison shopping service."
And in July 2017, the Electronic Privacy Information Center filed a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission regarding a Google program that tracks consumer behavior in stores.
One of the questions that is bound to come up in cases like this: how much privacy should we expect when we are willfully giving Google our information or using it as a pass-thru? Or should our private information remain in our control?
