US Federal Jury Fines Google $425M for Privacy Violation

A U.S. federal court jury ordered Google to pay $425 million in damages for violating privacy rights by collecting data from nearly 100 million users despite those users turning off tracking features in their accounts. The class action lawsuit, filed in July 2020, accused Google of intercepting and exploiting users' mobile app activity data without consent, violating California privacy laws. Google denies wrongdoing, stating that their privacy tools honor user choices and that the data collected is nonpersonal and pseudonymous, and has announced plans to appeal the ruling. The ruling found Google liable on two of three privacy violation counts but determined the company did not act with malice, thus no punitive damages were awarded. This verdict adds to ongoing scrutiny of Google's privacy practices, which include previous fines in Europe and settlements in other U.S. states, as Google works to develop less invasive tracking technologies. Separately, Google won a related antitrust battle where a judge rejected demands to sell its Chrome browser but required sharing search data with competitors to maintain market competition.