A court ordered Google to pay $425 million after finding the company misled 98 million users about data collection through its “Web & App Activity” setting[1]. The case revealed Google continued gathering user data via Firebase, a monitoring database embedded in 97% of top Android apps and 54% of leading iOS apps, even after users disabled data collection[1:1].
Google’s internal communications showed the company was “intentionally vague” about its data collection practices because being transparent “could sound alarming to users,” according to district judge Richard Seeborg[1:2].
This ruling adds to Google’s recent privacy settlements, including:
- $392 million paid to 40 states in 2023 for location tracking violations
- $40 million to Washington state for similar location tracking issues
- $1.38 billion to Texas in 2025 over location tracking and incognito mode claims[1:3]
Google plans to appeal the $425 million verdict, with spokesperson Jose Castaneda stating “This decision misunderstands how our products work” and asserting that Google honors user privacy choices[1:4].
I’m sure Google profited more than $425 million by doing so.
This is just part of the cost of doing business.
Great
So lawyers get half right off the bat. Leaves 212 ish million.
This affected how many, let’s say 1 billion users. Your privacy is worth 25 cents.
Oh and let’s not forget google gets to keep that data it illegally collected.
what’re you gonna do with your penny
They continued harvesting data from users after the users explicitly disabled an option to shut that off. And for that, they owe $4 a person. When are we going to starting fining these companies properly? How about a thousand dollars a person for an infraction like this? Maybe a $98 billion fine might get them to start caring.
We need a dearth penalty for corporations.
$425m is chump change to google, and they’re still trying to get out of it. Shows how unfathomably greedy these parasites are.
Zuckerberg has two $200m yachts. Google execs could probably find $425m in their couch cushions.
Like 25¢ per user.
The case revealed Google continued gathering user data via Firebase, a monitoring database embedded in 97% of top Android apps and 54% of leading iOS apps, even after users disabled data collection
This is why we can’t have nice things.
Next you’re going to tell me that politicians don’t tell the truth.
Well… Unfortunately, politicians sometimes tell the truth
Again they show us privacy policy never works, libre software does.
Yes, a lot of people believe this. Privacy and security only depends on the ethics and intentions of the dev or company, not of the license of their product. A lot of mal/spyware is FLOSS, even Googles tracking APIs (eg.googleanalytics, google-tagmanager, etc), included in a lot of FOSS, is.
Wrong, anti-libre software traps us in every abusive decision of its owner.
“Google plans to appeal the $425 million verdict with a judge who will ‘mysteriously’ buy a mansion after the case”
This outcome is predictable, as these corporations tend to avoid consequences.
Last week I created a temporary google account using an address from my own domain. The other day Google sent a mail that the account is restricted and I need to verify my age first. I’m located in central EU, why is Google doing this?
Even with the small amount per user, they better be forced to pay in real checks or similar. Not in Play Store gift cards/credits, as I imagine that is what they will want to do if their appeal fails.
