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Jury finds Google liable for privacy violations in class

action

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Google denies wrongdoing, claims data was nonpersonal and

encrypted

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Google has faced other privacy lawsuits

(Adds Google statement in paragraphs 5-6; statement from

consumers' lawyer in paragraph 7)

Sept 3 (Reuters) - A federal jury determined on

Wednesday that Alphabet's Google must pay $425 million

for invading users' privacy by continuing to collect data for

millions of users who had switched off a tracking feature in

their Google account.

The verdict comes after a trial in the federal court in San

Francisco over allegations that Google over an eight-year period

accessed users' mobile devices to collect, save, and use their

data, violating privacy assurances under its Web & App Activity

setting.

The users had been seeking more than $31 billion in

damages.

The jury found Google liable on two of the three claims of

privacy violations brought by the plaintiffs. The jury found

that Google had not acted with malice, meaning it was not

entitled to any punitive damages.

Google plans to appeal, Google spokesperson Jose Castaneda

said.

"This decision misunderstands how our products work,"

Castaneda said. "Our privacy tools give people control over

their data, and when they turn off personalization, we honor

that choice."

David Boies, a lawyer for the users, said in a statement

they were "obviously very pleased with the verdict the jury

returned."

The class action lawsuit, filed in July 2020, claimed Google

continued to collect users' data even with the setting turned

off through its relationship with apps such as Uber, Venmo and

Meta's Instagram that use certain Google analytics

services.

At trial, Google said the collected data was "nonpersonal,

pseudonymous, and stored in segregated, secured, and encrypted

locations." Google said the data was not associated with users'

Google accounts or any individual user's identity.

U.S. District Judge Richard Seeborg certified the case as a

class action covering about 98 million Google users and 174

million devices.

Google has faced other privacy lawsuits, including one

earlier this year where it paid nearly $1.4 billion in a

settlement with Texas over allegations the company violated the

state's privacy laws.

Google in April 2024 agreed to destroy billions of data

records of users' private browsing activities to settle a

lawsuit that alleged it tracked people who thought they were

browsing privately, including in "Incognito" mode.