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The
verdict reached Wednesday in San Francisco federal court
followed a more than two-week trial in a class-action case
covering about 98 million smartphones operating in the United
States between July 1, 2016, through Sept. 23, 2024. That means
the total damages awarded in the five-year-old case works out to
about $4 per device.
Google had denied that it was improperly tracking the online
activity of people who thought they had shielded themselves with
privacy controls. The company maintained its stance even though
the eight-person jury concluded Google had been spying in
violation of California privacy laws.
“This decision misunderstands how our products work, and we will
appeal it,” Google spokesman Jose Castaneda said Thursday. “Our
privacy tools give people control over their data, and when they
turn off personalization, we honor that choice.”
The lawyers who filed the case had argued Google had used the
data they collected off smartphones without users' permission to
help sell ads tailored to users' individual interests — a
strategy that resulted in the company reaping billions in
additional revenue. The lawyers framed those ad sales as illegal
profiteering that merited damages of more than $30 billion.
Even though the jury came up with a far lower calculation for
the damages, one of the lawyers who brought the case against
Google hailed the outcome as a victory for privacy protection.
“We hope this result sends a message to the tech industry that
Americans will not sit idly by as their information is collected
and monetized against their will,” said attorney John Yanchunis
of law firm Morgan & Morgan.
The San Francisco jury verdict came a day after Google avoided
the U.S. Department of Justice's attempt to break up the company
in a landmark antitrust case in Washington, D.C., targeting its
dominant search engine. A federal judge who had declared
Google's search engine to be an illegal monopoly ordered less
radical changes, including requiring the company to share some
of its search data with rivals.
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