A federal judge has ruled that Google will pay $425 million for infringing on users’ privacy by continuing to gather data from millions of individuals who opted out of tracking features in their Google accounts.
A San Francisco federal court reached this verdict following a trial concerning accusations that Google collected, stored, and used information from users’ mobile devices for eight years. This allegedly violated privacy promises linked to the “Web & App Activity” settings. A class action suit, launched in July 2020, claimed that Google persisted in data collection even when users disabled these settings through partnerships with apps like Uber, Venmo, and Meta, which utilize certain analytics services from Google.
Throughout the trial, Google argued that the data was managed in a “pseudonymous” and encrypted format, kept in a separate, secure location, and wasn’t linked to users’ Google accounts. However, the judges were not convinced and found Google liable for three counts of privacy violations raised by the plaintiff and allowed for punitive damages.
U.S. District Judge Richard Sieborg has certified this as a class action lawsuit affecting around 98 million Google users and 174 million devices. Initially, the plaintiff sought over $31 billion in damages.
In response, Google spokesperson Jose Castaneda stated that the company plans to appeal, suggesting that the ruling misinterprets how their services function. He added, “Our privacy tools enable users to manage their data, and we honor their choice when they disable personalization.”
This isn’t Google’s first run-in with legal issues related to privacy. In April 2024, the company settled a lawsuit concerning the destruction of billions of records related to users’ private browsing activities, particularly in “Incognito” mode. Earlier this year, Google also settled with Texas for nearly $1.4 billion, following accusations of breaking state privacy regulations.
