A US federal court has told Google to pay $425m (£316.3m) for breaching users’ privacy by collecting data from millions of users even 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 accessed users’ mobile devices to collect, save and use their data, in violation of privacy assurances in its Web & App Activity setting.
They had been seeking more than $31bn in damages.
“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 personalisation, we honour that choice,” a Google spokesperson told the BBC.
The jury in the case found the internet search giant liable to two of three claims of privacy violations but said the firm had not acted with malice.
The class action lawsuit, covering about 98 million Google users and 174 million devices, was filed in July 2020.
The plaintiffs alleged that Google’s collection practices extended to hundreds of thousands of smartphone apps, including those for ride-hailing companies Uber and Lyft, e-commerce giants Alibaba and Amazon, and Meta’s social networks Instagram and Facebook.
Google says that when users turn off Web & App Activity in their account, businesses using Google Analytics may still collect data about their use of sites and apps but that this information does not identify individual users and respects their privacy choices.
Separately this week, shares in Google’s parent company Alphabet jumped by more than 9% on Wednesday after a US federal judge ruled that it would not have to sell its Chrome web browserbut must share information with competitors.
The remedies decided by District Judge Amit Mehta emerged after a years-long court battle over Google’s dominance in online search.
The case centred on Google’s position as the default search engine on a range of its own products such as Android and Chrome as well as others made by the likes of Apple.
The US Department of Justice (DOJ) had demanded that Google sell Chrome – Tuesday’s decision means the tech giant can keep it but it will be barred from having exclusive contracts and must share search data with rivals.
Google faces a separate competition case overseen by District Judge Leonie Brinkema, who ruled in April that Google holds a monopoly in advertising technology.
She will oversee a trial aimed at finding remedies later this month.
By BBC News
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