A federal jury ordered Google to pay $425.7 million for invading users' privacy by collecting data over an eight-year period on millions of people who had turned off a tracking feature in their Google account.
The verdict on Wednesday in San Francisco comes after a trial in a class-action case applying to roughly 98 million users in the U.S. between July 1, 2016, and Sept. 23, 2024. The jury found that the company had been spying on users in violation of California privacy laws.
Google denied that it was improperly accessing devices to collect, save, and use data of people who believed they had protected their online activity with privacy controls.
"This decision misunderstands how our products work," Google spokesperson Jose Castaneda said in a statement to Reuters. "Our privacy tool