Google once made it more difficult for Samsung users to keep their location private

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It’s fairly well known that Google captures your location data almost constantly and, often, can directly pinpoint your location on both Android and iOS smartphones. According to some uncovered documents, Google once purposefully made it more difficult for Android users to stop this data gathering.

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Unredacted documents from a lawsuit between Google and the State of Arizona (via Business Insider) reveal a few details regarding the company’s internal decisions on how it handles location data, specifically on how Android handles it.

According to the documents, Google employees said that there was no way to grant location access to a third-party app on Android without also granting that data to Google. One employee noted that this practice is something the company wouldn’t want that information “on the front page” of media outlets.

Apparently, the company also viewed it as a “problem” that users took advantage of privacy settings within Android when versions of the operating system made those options easier to find. As a result, the company buried those options under more menus. Google reportedly “pressured” LG and other Android partners into hiding these settings as well. Another employee added that “this is how Apple is eating our lunch,” saying that the rival would be “more likely” to letting users share location data with apps but not Apple itself, a point that’s emphasized by iOS 14’s app tracking block.