Google must pay $425 million in class action over privacy, jury rules

In a significant ruling, a federal jury has mandated that Google’s parent company, Alphabet, must pay $425 million for infringing on user privacy. This decision was reached after it was revealed that Google continued to gather data from users who had opted out of a tracking feature within their accounts. The trial, held in San Francisco, highlighted allegations that over an eight-year span, Google accessed mobile devices to collect and utilize data, despite users’ privacy settings. The plaintiffs, who initially sought over $31 billion in damages, saw success as the jury found Google liable for two of the three claims related to privacy violations. Despite the verdict, the jury concluded that Google did not act maliciously, which means punitive damages were not awarded. A Google spokesperson, Jose Castaneda, expressed the company's intention to appeal, arguing that the ruling misinterprets how their privacy tools function. "We honor users' choices when they disable personalization," Castaneda stated. David Boies, representing the users, conveyed satisfaction with the jury's decision. The class action lawsuit, initiated in July 2020, alleged that Google continued data collection even when users had disabled the setting, leveraging partnerships with applications like Uber and Instagram that utilize Google’s analytics services. During the proceedings, Google maintained that the data harvested was nonpersonal and stored securely, asserting it was not linked to individual users' identities. US District Judge Richard Seeborg certified the case, which affects approximately 98 million Google users across 174 million devices. This ruling adds to Google’s history of privacy-related legal challenges. Earlier this year, the company settled a lawsuit with Texas for nearly $1.4 billion over similar privacy concerns. In April 2024, Google also agreed to eliminate billions of records related to users' private browsing activities, settling allegations of unauthorized tracking in Incognito mode.