Data snooping: Google hit with $425m verdict, accused of tracking users; case covers 98m people

A federal jury has ordered Alphabet’s Google to pay $425 million after finding the company violated users’ privacy by continuing to collect data even when millions had switched off a key tracking feature.

The verdict, delivered on Wednesday in a San Francisco court, followed a class-action lawsuit filed in July 2020, which alleged that Google had gathered and stored users’ information over eight years, despite privacy assurances tied to its 'Web & App Activity' setting. Plaintiffs had sought more than $31 billion in damages.

Jurors found Google liable on two of three privacy claims but said the company had not acted with malice, sparing it from punitive damages, according to Reuters. A Google spokesperson confirmed the verdict, though the company had denied wrongdoing throughout the trial.

The lawsuit alleged Google continued harvesting user data through its ties with apps such as Uber, Venmo, and Instagram, which rely on Google analytics services. Google countered that the data collected was “nonpersonal, pseudonymous, and stored in secured, encrypted locations,” not linked to individual accounts, a report from Reuters said.

US district judge Richard Seeborg certified the case as a class action covering roughly 98 million users and 174 million devices.

The ruling adds to Google’s mounting privacy battles. Earlier this year, the company agreed to pay $1.4 billion to settle claims in Texas over state privacy law violations. In April 2024, it agreed to erase billions of records from its “Incognito” browsing mode following another lawsuit accusing it of secretly tracking private activity.