A US federal court has ordered Google to pay $425 million for violating user privacy by continuing to collect data even after users had disabled tracking through the Web & App Activity setting in their accounts.
The ruling follows a class-action lawsuit filed in July 2020 on behalf of approximately 98 million users and 174 million devices. Plaintiffs argued that Google’s data collection practices breached its own privacy assurances and extended across a wide network of third-party apps, including Uber, Lyft, Amazon, Alibaba, Facebook, and Instagram.
The jury found Google liable on two of the three privacy violation claims, although it determined the company had not acted with malice. The plaintiffs had originally sought over $31 billion in damages.
In response, a Google spokesperson told the BBC the company would appeal, stating: “This decision misunderstands how our products work. Our privacy tools give people control over their data, and when they turn off personalisation, we honour that choice.”
Google maintained that while turning off Web & App Activity disables personalised tracking, aggregated data may still be collected by services such as Google Analytics, which, the company insists, does not identify individual users and respects their preferences.
The ruling adds to growing legal pressures facing the tech giant, which is also embroiled in multiple antitrust proceedings.
On Wednesday, shares in Google’s parent company Alphabet rose more than 9% after another major legal development. In a separate case, District Judge Amit Mehta ruled that Google can retain ownership of its Chrome browser but must stop enforcing exclusive contracts and begin sharing search data with competitors. The ruling concluded a years-long Department of Justice antitrust case challenging Google’s dominance in search.
Meanwhile, Google faces another competition lawsuit concerning its advertising technology. In April, District Judge Leonie Brinkema found Google to hold a monopoly in that space. A separate trial to determine remedies is scheduled for later this month.
Source: BBC
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