Google ordered to pay $425 million for unauthorized collection of user data
The plaintiffs, representing some 98 million users, had disabled settings that tracked their web and app activity. This decision disallowed the collection of data from popular company services such as the Chrome browser, Google Maps and Google News.
Google offices/Greg Baker
(AFP) Google was ordered Wednesday to pay just over $425 million for violating the privacy of nearly100 million users from whom it collected data despite having turned off that option, the company confirmed.
A San Francisco federal court jury found the tech giant guilty in a case of "unlawful interception by Google of the private activityof consumers in mobile apps," lawyers charged in a class action filed in July 2020.
"This decision misunderstandshow our products work, and we will appeal it," Google spokesman Jose Castaneda said in a statement. "Our privacy tools give people control over their data, and when they turn off personalization, we respect that choice."
The plaintiffs, representing some 98 million users, had turned off settings that tracked web and app activity. This decision did not authorize data collection from popular company services such as the Chrome browser, Google Maps and Google News.
Cookies', a threat to privacy.
Google has long beenunder pressure to balance lucrative ad targeting, the core of its financial success, withprotecting users' privacy.
The Silicon Valley gianthas been working to replace online activity-tracking cookies with aless invasivebut equally effectivemechanism.
The cookies are small files stored in browsers by websites that can collect dataabout users' online activity, being essential to the online advertising and business models of many large platforms.
Three million-dollar fines from 2020
However, Wednesday's fine against Google is the third issued by the National Computer and Liberties Commission over the search company's use of cookies, after paying about $100 million in 2020 and $150 million in 2021.
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