Report from Courthouse News
In Brief – A federal jury in a consumer class-action lawsuit ruled that Google violated users’ privacy by continuing to collect data from apps even after they believed that they had opted out of tracking, but awarded the class, estimated at nearly 100 million users, just $425 million in compensatory damages, far short of the plaintiffs’ attorneys request of more than $30 billion in damages. The case involved Google’s “Web & App Activity” (WAA) setting and its sub-setting “supplemental Web & App Activity” (sWAA), which the plaintiffs argued was used by Google to mislead users into believing they could control or stop data collection by the company, when in reality Google continued harvesting user activity information but stored it in a different, anonymized manner. Google argued that it had user consent for the data collection, noting that it explicitly informed users that some data continued to be collected even when WAA is turned off. The company also argued that no actual harm occurred, since no data was leaked and Google disclosed its practices. The jurors explained that they awarded compensatory damages, based on an estimation of the value of the data, but declined punitive or other damages, saying they saw no direct harm to users or major revenue impact for Google.
Context – Google, as well as privacy-champion Apple, have faced legal and regulatory challenges alleging that when they have told users that they could choose not to be tracked, there was often still tracking of various sorts going on. An investigation by AP in 2018 revealed that when Android phone users selected the option to turn off “Location History” between 2014 and 2017, significant tracking still occurred on various apps and for advertising. Google subsequently faced lawsuits and regulatory actions in many markets, including the US, Europe, Australia, and reached a $395 million settlement with a coalition of 40 State AGs in 2022. In 2023, the company settled a lawsuit involving its Chrome browser “Incognito” mode that offered a level of private browsing that was less robust than what some users believed.