Google hit with $425 million in privacy lawsuit

A US federal court in San Francisco has ordered Google to pay $425 million for breaching users' privacy by collecting data from millions of users after they had turned off a tracking feature in their Google accounts.

The verdict comes after a group of users brought the case claiming Google broke its promise of privacy by secretly collecting data in violation of privacy assurances in its Web&App Activity setting.

A Google spokesperson told BBC, “This decision misunderstands how our products work, and we will appeal it. Our privacy tools give people control over their data, and when they turn off personalization, we honor that choice.”

The jury in this case found that internet search giant liable to two of three claims of punitive damages by concluding that it had not acted with malice.

The class action suit which was filed in July 2020 claimed that Google continued collecting users' data even when the settings were off, through its connections with popular apps such as Uber, Venmo, and Instagram that utilize Google’s analytics.

Google says that when users switched off Web&App Activity in their account, businesses using Google Analytics may still collect data about their use of apps, but this information specifically does not identify users and respects their privacy choices.

Google’s parent company, Alphabet stock jumped by more than 9% after a US federal judge ruled that it would not sell its Chrome web browser.

The remedies decided by District Judge Amit Mehta have emerged after a long year's court battle that in order to promote competition, ordered Google to share some of its valuable search data with rivals.

In April 2024, Google 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.