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

A national assemblage determined connected Wednesday that Alphabet's Google indispensable wage $425 cardinal for invading users' privateness by continuing to cod information for millions of users who had switched disconnected a tracking diagnostic successful their Google account.

The verdict comes aft a proceedings successful the national tribunal successful San Francisco implicit allegations that Google, implicit an eight-year period, accessed users' mobile devices to collect, save, and usage their data, violating privateness assurances nether its Web & App Activity setting.

The users had been seeking much than $31 cardinal successful damages.

The assemblage recovered Google liable connected 2 of the 3 claims of privateness violations brought by the plaintiffs. The assemblage recovered that Google had not acted with malice, meaning it was not entitled to immoderate punitive damages.

A spokesperson for Google confirmed the verdict. Google had denied immoderate wrongdoing.

The people enactment lawsuit, filed successful July 2020, claimed Google continued to cod users' information adjacent with the mounting turned disconnected done its narration with apps specified arsenic Uber, Venmo and Meta's META.O Instagram that usage definite Google analytics services.

At trial, Google said the collected information was "nonpersonal, pseudonymous, and stored successful segregated, secured, and encrypted locations." Google said the information was not associated with users' Google accounts oregon immoderate idiosyncratic user's identity.

U.S. District Judge Richard Seeborg certified the lawsuit arsenic a people enactment covering astir 98 cardinal Google users and 174 cardinal devices.

Google has faced different privateness lawsuits, including 1 earlier this twelvemonth wherever it paid astir $1.4 cardinal successful a colony with Texas implicit allegations the institution violated the state's privateness laws.

Google successful April 2024 agreed to destruct billions of information records of users' backstage browsing activities to settee a suit that alleged it tracked radical who thought they were browsing privately, including successful "Incognito" mode.