A US federal jury has ordered Google to pay approximately $425 million in damages for collecting data from smartphone app usage despite users opting for privacy settings. The decision was made in a class action suit filed in July 2020, which alleged that Google intercepted, tracked, and sold users’ mobile app activity data regardless of their chosen privacy settings.
The lawsuit claimed that Google’s actions constituted an illegal interception of consumers’ private activity on mobile applications. Google has maintained that its privacy tools give users control over their data and that the company honors users’ choices when they opt out of personalization. However, the plaintiffs’ attorneys argued that Google’s privacy promises are “blatant lies.”
The jury verdict was delivered in San Francisco, a day after Google secured a victory in a separate antitrust case. A federal judge in Washington, DC, rejected the government’s demand that Google sell its Chrome web browser. Google has stated that it will appeal the $425 million verdict, claiming that it misunderstands how the company’s products work.
The case highlights the ongoing challenges Google faces in balancing its advertising business with user privacy concerns. The company has been working to replace online activity tracking “cookies” with a less invasive mechanism. Cookies are small files saved to browsers by websites that collect data about users’ online activity, which is essential for online advertising.
In a related development, France’s data protection authority, CNIL, has issued record fines against Google and fast-fashion platform Shein for failing to respect the law on internet cookies. Google was fined 325 million euros, while Shein received a fine of 150 million euros. The authority found that both companies failed to secure users’ free and informed consent before setting advertising cookies on their browsers.
Google has stated that it will study the CNIL decision and has complied with earlier demands. This is the third fine issued by CNIL over Google’s use of cookies, following previous fines of 100 million euros in 2020 and 150 million euros in 2021. The developments underscore the increasing scrutiny of tech companies’ data collection practices and the need for transparency and compliance with privacy regulations.