A U.S. federal jury ruled on Wednesday that tech giant Google must pay approximately $425 million in compensation to around 100 million users after collecting their personal data despite explicit refusals.
The federal court in San Francisco issued the ruling following a trial that began in mid-August, accusing Google of logging information about mobile app usage even after users opted out of tracking options.
The number of claimants was determined by the court to be about 98 million people, who had disabled the “Web & App Activity” feature in addition to a secondary setting to block online tracking. However, Google continued to gather data from its services such as Chrome, Google Maps, and Google News.
Background of the Case:
The roots of the case trace back to a class action lawsuit filed in July 2020, in which the attorneys of the plaintiffs accused the company of making “misleading promises” regarding privacy protection.
Google’s Response:
The company announced its intention to appeal, stating that the ruling is based on a “misunderstanding of how our products work,” as remarked by its spokesperson José Castaneda.
This ruling comes amid increasing scrutiny of the practices of major tech companies in collecting and using personal data.
