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Jury Orders Google to Pay $425 Million for Collecting App Data Despite Privacy Setting

Google calls the verdict a misunderstanding of its products, vowing to appeal.

FILE - A sign is displayed on a Google building at their campus in Mountain View, Calif., Sept. 24, 2019. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu, File)
People walk next to a Google logo during a trade fair in Hannover Messe, in Hanover, Germany, April 22, 2024. REUTERS/Annegret Hilse/File Photo
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Overview

  • The San Francisco federal jury found Google liable on two of three privacy claims and found no malice, so no punitive damages were awarded.
  • The class covers about 98 million users and 174 million devices, with plaintiffs seeking over $31 billion before jurors set damages at roughly $425 million.
  • Jurors weighed evidence that Google continued to harvest mobile app activity from third-party services like Uber, Venmo and Instagram even when Web & App Activity was turned off.
  • Google argued the signals were nonpersonal and pseudonymous, stored securely and not tied to individual accounts.
  • On the same day, France’s CNIL fined Google €325 million over Gmail ads and cookie consent practices and gave six months to comply or face daily penalties.