A federal jury has ordered Google to pay 425 million dollars to the plaintiffs in a class action lawsuit centered on user data collection. The case alleged that the tech giant continued to harvest user information even after individuals had turned off a specific tracking feature.
The lawsuit, originally filed in July 2020, argued that Google misled users. The company’s Web & App Activity setting suggests that disabling it will stop data collection. However, the lead plaintiff contended that Google continued to gather information through its connections with third-party applications like Uber and Instagram. The case was later certified as a class action by US District Judge Richard Seeborg, encompassing an estimated 98 million Google users across 174 million devices.
While the plaintiffs legal team had sought a staggering 31 billion dollars in damages, the jury’s verdict was more limited. The panel found Google liable on two out of the three privacy violation claims. Crucially, the jury determined that Google did not violate the California Comprehensive Computer Data Access and Fraud Act and that the company did not act with malice. This finding meant the plaintiffs were not entitled to any punitive damages, significantly reducing the potential financial penalty.
In response to the decision, Google spokesperson Jose Castaneda stated that the ruling misunderstands how their products work. He emphasized that the company’s privacy tools are designed to give users control over their data and insisted that Google honors choices to turn off personalization. Castaneda confirmed that Google plans to appeal the verdict.
This case is not an isolated incident for the search engine behemoth. Google has faced a series of similar privacy challenges. In a separate 2020 lawsuit, the company was accused of tracking users who were browsing in Chrome’s Incognito mode. That 5 billion dollar lawsuit was settled in 2023. As part of the resolution, Google later admitted that it could indeed collect information during Incognito sessions and promised to destroy billions of data records it had gathered through this method.
The outcome of this latest lawsuit highlights the ongoing tension between large technology companies and user privacy advocates. It underscores the legal and financial risks associated with data handling practices, even as companies like Google maintain that their systems operate with user consent and control. The planned appeal ensures that this particular legal battle over app data collection is far from over.
