Heads up, Google might be tracking your location

Google (GOOGL) is allegedly watching you as users’ location history has been quietly tracked for certain services like Maps and Search. After an investigation made by the Associated Press, Google later confirmed about the tracking of users even when the smartphone’s GPS services are off.

The investigation has prompted Google to reply – with the giant stating that it intends to improvise users’ experience using Web and App Activity, as well as Location History. For this, the company has been using device-level location services.

Google has a long historical record of monitoring emails for providing personalized advertisements till last year. In 2017, Google, however, stopped this practice after public outcry over data privacy. Meanwhile, e-mails are still not private as more third-party apps are accessing them for assessing consumers behavior.

Related: Google may not be reading your e-mails, but many others are!

In recent years, Google has faced two fines totaling $7.7 billion in Europe with regard to the abuse in search and in Android market. Experts believe the recent location tracking could land Google directly in the eyes of the European Union as data privacy laws remained strong in the EU.

Under the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) law, Google could face massive fines in Europe amounting to 2% to 4% of Google’s turnover, according to The Register. This is for data protection and privacy of all people within the European Union. The fines are likely to have an eye-catching impact on its upcoming quarterly results.

Related: EU regulators ask Google to pay $5-billion fine for Android abuse