Google to pay $425 million after years of improper spying on smartphone activity
A federal jury ordered Google to pay $425.7 million for invading users' privacy by collecting data over an eight-year period on millions of people who had turned off a tracking feature in their Google account.
The verdict on Wednesday in San Francisco comes after a trial in a class-action case applying to roughly 98 million users in the U.S. between July 1, 2016, and Sept. 23, 2024. The jury found that the company had been spying on users in violation of California privacy laws.
Google denied that it was improperly accessing devices to collect, save, and use data of people who believed they had protected their online activity with privacy controls.
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"This decision misunderstands how our products work," Google spokesperson Jose Castaneda said in a statement to Reuters. "Our privacy tools give people control over their data, and when they turn off personalization, we honor that choice."
Castaneda said the company plans to appeal the verdict.
The class action lawsuit was filed in July 2020, accusing Google of continuing to collect data on users who had turned on privacy controls.
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During the trial, Google said the data collected was "nonpersonal, pseudonymous, and stored in segregated, secured, and encrypted locations."
The company claimed the data was not associated with users' Google accounts or any user’s identity.
Lawyer David Boies, who represented the users, said in a statement they were "obviously very pleased with the verdict the jury returned."
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Google has been slapped with other lawsuits for privacy violations, including one earlier this year in which it agreed to pay nearly $1.4 billion in a settlement with Texas over allegations of violating the state's privacy laws.
Last year, the company agreed to destroy billions of data records of users' private browsing activities to settle a lawsuit accusing it of tracking people who believed they were browsing privately, including in "Incognito" mode.
Reuters contributed to this report.
