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A jury has ordered Google to pay $425 million for collecting users' data even after they disabled a tracking feature on their Google accounts.
As Reuters reports, the class-action lawsuit was filed in 2020, and it accused Google of collecting search and activity data through third-party apps like Uber, Venmo, and Instagram when users turned off the "Web & App Activity" setting for their Google accounts.
When enabled, the feature allows Google to collect your search and activity history and provide personalized search results and ads. During the trial, Google argued it only collected "nonpersonal, pseudonymous, and stored in segregated, secured, and encrypted locations," Reuters says. However, the jury found Google liable for two of three privacy violation claims.
The class-action covers about 98 million users and 174 million devices. The plaintiffs had demanded $31 billion in damages for data collected between 2016 and 2024. However, the jury ruled against punitive damages, as it found that Google had not acted with malicious intent, Reuters notes.
Google says it will appeal. "This decision misunderstands how our products work," Google tells Reuters. "Our privacy tools give people control over their data, and when they turn off personalization, we honor that choice."
Earlier this year, Google agreed to pay Texas close to $1.4 billion to settle two lawsuits alleging illegal collection of biometric data. In 2023, it settled a location tracking lawsuit brought by 40 states by paying $392 million.