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N.C. Attorney General Stein announces $391M Google settlement

North Carolina Attorney General Josh Stein speaks during a news conference at the North Carolina Department of Justice in Raleigh, N.C., Wednesday, Aug. 3, 2022. (AP Photo/Hannah Schoenbaum, File)

North Carolina Attorney General Josh Stein speaks during a news conference at the North Carolina Department of Justice in Raleigh, N.C., Wednesday, Aug. 3, 2022. (AP Photo/Hannah Schoenbaum, File)

North Carolina Attorney General Josh Stein is praising a $391.5 million multistate settlement with Google over its location tracking practices. 

The lawsuit alleged Google violated state consumer protection laws by misleading users about how it accesses personal data and location information. According to a news release, Google collected the data even when users asked the company not to, using it to target consumers with advertisements.  

The settlement requires Google to be more transparent about its practices, including making its account controls more user-friendly, and limiting how the company taps into location information.

Stein was on the executive committee of states which negotiated the settlement of nearly $400 million, the “largest multistate attorney general privacy settlement in U.S. history.”

North Carolina’s share of the settlement is over $17 million.

Neal Charnoff joined 88.5 WFDD as Morning Edition host in 2014. Raised in the Catskill region of upstate New York, he graduated from Sarah Lawrence College in 1983. Armed with a liberal arts degree, Neal was fully equipped to be a waiter. So he prolonged his arrested development bouncing around New York and L.A. until discovering that people enjoyed listening to his voice on the radio. After a few years doing overnight shifts at a local rock station, Neal spent most of his career at Vermont Public Radio. He began as host of a nightly jazz program, where he was proud to interview many of his idols, including Dave Brubeck and Sonny Rollins. Neal graduated to the news department, where he was the local host for NPR's All Things Considered for 14 years. In addition to news interviews and features, he originated and produced the Weekly Conversation On The Arts, as well as VPR Backstage, which profiled theater productions around the state. He contributed several stories to NPR, including coverage of a devastating ice storm. Neal now sees the value of that liberal arts degree, and approaches life with the knowledge that all subjects and all art forms are connected to each other. Neal and his wife Judy are enjoying exploring North Carolina and points south. They would both be happy to never experience a Vermont winter again.

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