Google Ordered to Pay $425m over Privacy Breach
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – A US jury in San Francisco ordered Google to pay $425 million for violating the privacy of tens of millions of users who opted out of app-tracking features.
The verdict was delivered Wednesday after a group of Google users accused the company of continuing to collect data from third-party apps despite users changing account settings to block the practice.
Google said the ruling reflected a misunderstanding of its products and announced plans to appeal.
“Our privacy tools give people control over their data, and when they turn off personalization, we honor that choice,” Google spokesperson Jose Castaneda said.
The plaintiffs claimed Google collected and sold users’ mobile app activity data, violating privacy guarantees in its Web & App Activity settings.
The lawsuit, filed in July 2020, involved approximately 98 million Google users.
During the trial, Google argued that the data collected was “nonpersonal” and “pseudonymous,” stored in “segregated, secured, and encrypted locations.”
Google has faced multiple recent privacy lawsuits.
In May, the company agreed to pay $1.375 billion to Texas over allegations it collected residents’ facial geometry and voiceprints without consent and tracked locations even when users opted out.
