Google Ordered to Pay $425M for Secretly Tracking Users' Data
A federal jury has ordered Google to pay $425 million in damages for invading the privacy of 98 million users. The tech giant was found to have secretly collected data even when users had turned off an app's activity tracking feature.
The lawsuit, filed in 2020, described Google as a 'voyeur extraordinaire' for intercepting and logging users' virtual lives. Despite this, no search results indicate that the Federal Court of Justice imposed such a large damages sum against the plaintiffs. The jury determined that Google's actions violated privacy but did not act with malice, thus not awarding punitive damages.
Google maintains that its privacy tools give users control over their data and that it honors users' choices when they turn off personalization. However, the jury found that Google's actions indeed violated privacy over eight years. Notably, the jury did not find Google guilty of violating the California Comprehensive Computer Data Access and Fraud Act.
The jury's decision is considered significant by privacy advocates, as it's rare for tech giants to lose such cases and not settle out of court. Alan Butler, executive director of the Electronic Privacy Information Center, described the verdict as 'a huge win' for plaintiffs. Google, however, plans to appeal the decision.
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