Google to pay $425 million following jury verdict on privacy violations

New Delhi: A federal jury in San Francisco has ordered Alphabet’s Google to pay $425 million for violating users’ privacy by continuing to collect data from millions of people who had switched off a tracking feature in their accounts, according to Reuters report.

The case centred on allegations that, over an eight-year period, Google accessed mobile devices to collect, store, and use data in breach of privacy assurances tied to its Web & App Activity setting.

Users had been seeking more than $31 billion in damages. The jury found Google liable on two of the three privacy violation claims brought by the plaintiffs but concluded the company had not acted with malice, meaning no punitive damages were applied.

Google has indicated it will appeal the ruling, arguing that the verdict reflects a misunderstanding of how its products function. The company maintains that its privacy tools allow users to control their data and that settings disabling personalisation are respected.

David Boies, counsel for the plaintiffs, described the outcome as a positive result for users, noting their satisfaction with the jury’s decision.

The class action lawsuit, filed in July 2020, covered around 98 million Google users and 174 million devices. It alleged that Google continued to collect data even when the tracking setting was disabled, including through its relationships with apps such as Uber, Venmo, and Meta’s Instagram, which rely on Google analytics services.

During the trial, Google argued the data at issue was “nonpersonal, pseudonymous, and stored in segregated, secured, and encrypted locations,” and was not linked to Google accounts or individual identities.

The company has faced a series of privacy disputes in recent years. Earlier in 2025, it agreed to pay nearly $1.4 billion in a settlement with the state of Texas over alleged violations of privacy laws. In April 2024, Google also consented to delete billions of browsing records to resolve claims it had tracked people using “Incognito” mode.