Google loses $425m privacy battle in San Francisco court

A federal jury decided on Wednesday that Alphabet's Google must pay $425 million for invading users’ privacy by continuing to collect data for millions of users who had switched off a tracking feature in their Google account.

The verdict followed a trial in the federal court in San Francisco over allegations that, for more than eight years, Google accessed users’ mobile devices to collect, save, and use their data, breaking privacy assurances under its Web & App Activity setting.

The users had been seeking more than $31 billion in damages.

The jury found Google liable on two of the three claims of privacy violations raised by the plaintiffs. However, it decided that Google had not acted with malice, meaning the company was not liable for any punitive damages.

A spokesperson for Google confirmed the verdict. Google had denied any wrongdoing.

The class action lawsuit, filed in July 2020, alleged that Google continued collecting users’ data even when the setting was turned off, through its connections with apps such as Uber, Venmo, and Meta's Instagram, which rely on Google’s analytics services.

At trial, Google argued that the data collected was “nonpersonal, pseudonymous, and stored in segregated, secured, and encrypted locations.” The company said the data was not tied to users’ Google accounts or any individual identity.

US District Judge Richard Seeborg certified the case as a class action, covering about 98 million Google users and 174 million devices.

Google has faced other privacy lawsuits, including one earlier this year where it paid nearly $1.4 billion in a settlement with Texas over claims that the company violated the state’s privacy laws.

In April 2024, Google also agreed to destroy billions of data records of users’ private browsing activities to settle another lawsuit, which alleged it tracked people who believed they were browsing privately, including in “Incognito” mode.