Daily Authority: 💲 Google’s record-breaking settlement

🥳 Good morning! Welcome to Tuesday’s Daily Authority. Things seem quite quiet on the tech news front in the run-up to Black Friday, but I’m excited for Friday’s launch of The Devil in Me, the next installment in the Dark Pictures Anthology! But first, the day’s tech headlines…

It’s not the first time that Google’s been in legal hot water this year, but the settlement of this latest lawsuit sets a new record.

• An internet privacy lawsuit from earlier in the year is finally settling, with Google paying to the tune of $392 million.
• The case was first launched back in January, with attorney generals from multiple states alleging Google had deceived users by collecting their location data without permission, even when those users thought they had location tracking turned off.
• The settlement sets a new record for internet privacy settlements in the US.
• Going forward, Google will also need to be clearer about its tracking.

Out of the fire, into the frying pan

Google still has plenty of other pending lawsuits, though.

Whether you’re currently playing God of War Ragnarök (one of the best PS5 games around) after its launch last week or are clearing other games in your backlog first, there’s no denying that the latest God of War game is innovative in its storytelling (as reported by Axios).

• In the 2018 game, Kratos and Atreus would often hold conversations during travel sequences which fleshed out the story and offered an alternative to the usual cinematic scenes.
• This system has been expanded in God of War Ragnarök — the game will detect your pace and anticipate potential down moments (often only 20 seconds long) when there’s no major plot moment of combat, offering an opportunity for chat between the characters.
• According to Matt Sophos, the game’s narrative director, “The characters may wind up talking about recent events in the game, reveal more of their pasts, or even ponder riddles they’re stumped on.”
• That may not sound particularly innovative, but this dialogue can vary from one player’s game to another, playing at different times and in different locations — so you could have a totally different experience from your friend, with some of the dialogue expiring as you make your way through the game’s 30+hour quest.
• That’s just one more thing to look forward to when I finally get around to playing God of War Ragnarök over the holidays.

Have a great day!

Paula Beaton, Copy Editor.