Benvenuto nel Poliverso

Google misled users about their privacy and now owes them $425m, says court

A court ordered Google to pay $425 million after finding the company misled 98 million users about data collection through its "Web & App Activity" setting¹. 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 collection¹.

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 Seeborg¹.

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 claims¹

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 choices¹.

Malwarebytes - Google misled users about their privacy and now owes them $425m, says court ↩︎ ↩︎ ↩︎ ↩︎ ↩︎

Google misled users about their privacy and now owes them $425m, says court | Malwarebytes

A court has ordered Google to pay $425m in a class action lawsuit after it was found to have misled users about their online privacy.

^{Danny Bradbury (Malwarebytes)}

#privacy

like this

in reply to Zerush

The Rizzler

in reply to Zerush • 1 mese fa • •

"google mislead ____ about privacy"...no! Really?! They would never!

like this

in reply to The Rizzler

Zerush

in reply to The Rizzler • 1 mese fa • •

Yes, a big surprise

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in reply to The Rizzler

SendMePhotos

in reply to The Rizzler • 1 mese fa • •

Don't they have a rule, "don't be evil." oh wait.

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in reply to SendMePhotos

Zerush

in reply to SendMePhotos • 1 mese fa • •

Yes, when it was still Anakim Skywalker leading the company

in reply to Zerush

SendMePhotos

in reply to Zerush • 1 mese fa • •

Isn't he now?

in reply to SendMePhotos

Zerush

in reply to SendMePhotos • 1 mese fa • •

...as Dard Vader

in reply to SendMePhotos

The Rizzler

in reply to SendMePhotos • 1 mese fa • •

they got rid of the "don't" part about the same time they bought youtube or so...maybe they waited until the moment they started auto-un-subbing people from certain channels, that's where everything really got fucked up, it started from that

in reply to Zerush

Catoblepas

in reply to Zerush • 1 mese fa • •

What are you guys gonna do with your nickel?

in reply to Catoblepas

Five

in reply to Catoblepas • 1 mese fa • •

Don't downplay it -- it's a whole $4! That's a bowl of soup for all of your privacy. Until they appeal it, that is.

in reply to Five

Catoblepas

in reply to Five • 1 mese fa • •

Oh, there’s no way anyone is getting anywhere near (settlement total/number of people). That’s before the lawyer cut.

in reply to Five

Alexstarfire

in reply to Five • 1 mese fa • •

That's 3 bowls if the soup is on sale. I literally just bought some for $1.25 a can. Though, that's before taxes.

in reply to Alexstarfire

Five

in reply to Alexstarfire • 1 mese fa • •

You could feed your whole family with that much soup!

in reply to Five

Alexstarfire

in reply to Five • 1 mese fa • •

Fucking family of 1.

in reply to Zerush

Sludgehammer

in reply to Zerush • 1 mese fa • •

"Google plans to appeal the $425 million verdict with a judge who will 'mysteriously' buy a mansion after the case"

in reply to Zerush

Blisterexe

in reply to Zerush • 1 mese fa • •

Court finds I deceived people, I now have to pay 5¢

in reply to Zerush

The Velour Fog

in reply to Zerush • 1 mese fa • •

$425m is chump change to google, and they're still trying to get out of it. Shows how unfathomably greedy these parasites are.

in reply to The Velour Fog

boaratio

in reply to The Velour Fog • 1 mese fa • •

Zuckerberg has two $200m yachts. Google execs could probably find $425m in their couch cushions.

in reply to Zerush

suicidaleggroll

in reply to Zerush • 1 mese fa • •

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.

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in reply to suicidaleggroll

frostysauce

in reply to suicidaleggroll • 1 mese fa • •

We need a dearth penalty for corporations.

in reply to Zerush

d-RLY?

in reply to Zerush • 1 mese fa • •

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.

in reply to Zerush

Alexstarfire

in reply to Zerush • 1 mese fa • •

Next you're going to tell me that politicians don't tell the truth.

in reply to Alexstarfire

jim3692

in reply to Alexstarfire • 1 mese fa • •

Well... Unfortunately, politicians sometimes tell the truth

in reply to jim3692

Alexstarfire

in reply to jim3692 • 1 mese fa • •

in reply to Zerush

Autonomous User

in reply to Zerush • 1 mese fa • •

Again they show us privacy policy never works, libre software does.

in reply to Autonomous User

Zerush

in reply to Autonomous User • 1 mese fa • •

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.

in reply to Zerush

MonkderVierte

in reply to Zerush • 1 mese fa • •

Out of 50 FOSS apps (F-Droid) i use, none use googleanalytics, google-tagmanager or any other tracking framework. Some of them display a send bugreport popup on crash, which redirects to E-Mail.

Out of 5 proprietary apps i use (Aurora store in shelter profile), i see Adobe Experience Cloud, Appdynamics, Google Admob/Crashlytics, AltBeacon and those are some of the more tame apps.

Tested with TrackerControl and confirmed via App Manager.

In short, your claim is false. Are you maybe confusing things with LineageOS optionally using analytics?

TrackerControl | F-Droid - Free and Open Source Android App Repository

TrackerControl allows to monitor and control hidden data collection in apps.

^f-droid.org

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in reply to Zerush

Autonomous User

in reply to Zerush • 1 mese fa • •

Wrong, anti-libre software traps us in every abusive decision of its owner.

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in reply to Zerush

cardfire

in reply to Zerush • 1 mese fa • •

That's going to be $0.80 for each of us

in reply to cardfire

interdimensionalmeme

in reply to cardfire • 1 mese fa • •

Why don't we treat them like other criminals.
You've done a crime, go to corpo prison for 20 years
Why are we treating corporation, which we "Limit Liability" of the operators already, nicer than we treat humans ?
Like, what happens if you're found to have done fraud ?
That's like 5 years in prison isn't it ?
Don't necessary put the C-suite in prison, just put the corporation in prison for 5 years. Everyone that works there can work somewhere else during the time out.
Other corporation can fill the vacuum while the criminal corporation is absent ?

Because if not, two things are going to happen.
Way more C-unts are going to get Luigi'd
and/or
I'm going to start a criminal corporation and we're going to mulch cop-babies for protein.

in reply to interdimensionalmeme

Gonzako

in reply to interdimensionalmeme • 1 mese fa • •

Corporations get treated as humans with only rights and no duties.

in reply to cardfire

Basic Glitch

in reply to cardfire • 1 mese fa • •

Ok, fork it the fuck over.

If we all started going in on all the privacy violation lawsuits and collecting on them it adds up.

Why am I supposed to clip coupons but not collect free money these giant corporations are hemorrhaging?

Edit: Actually just checked and it's about $4/user. I'll take $4 out of spite.

news.bloomberglaw.com/litigati…

Google Hit With $425 Million Jury Verdict in Privacy Trial (5)

Google LLC must pay $425.7 million in compensatory damages for violating the privacy rights of almost 100 million Google users who asked that their account data not be tracked, a jury decided Wednesday.

^{Isaiah Poritz (news.bloomberglaw.com)}

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in reply to cardfire

pika

in reply to cardfire • 1 mese fa • •

And it will be on a prepaid card and you'll need to sign up for a google account to get the card.

That's what Equifax did to people. Made them create an account and fork over personal details to get the settlement payout.

A settlement Equifax had to pay over stolen data. Oh the irony.

in reply to Zerush

TankovayaDiviziya

in reply to Zerush • 1 mese fa • •

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.

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in reply to Zerush

CerebralHawks

in reply to Zerush • 1 mese fa • •

People were ever confused about Google's relationship with privacy?

I think if anyone is financially liable for misleading anyone, it's the Android community. I mean the fanboys, the anti-Apple guys, the ones who downplayed, omitted, or straight up lied about Android being a vehicle for data collection first and foremost. But they have no direct financial gain for doing so (they gain nothing if you buy a phone running Android, and they lose nothing if you buy an iPhone) so they can't be held liable.

Google has never been your friend if you care about privacy. You use Google tools because they're free and they're pretty good. You pay with your privacy. Always have. You use Android because it's more customisable than iOS, and because of the illusion of open source (iOS is based on macOS which was based on NeXTSTEP which was basically UNIX, so who cares if Android is Linux?). And because you can install custom firmware (e.g. GrapheneOS) which is Android with the tracking stuff stripped out. But you're still paying Google and paying into their business model, i.e. rewarding them for bad behaviour (or at least that which you profess to disapprove of).

(FWIW, I use both platforms. I like both platforms, and I can tell you what I like more about each one beyond what I've said, but it's apocryphal at best.)

in reply to Zerush

ABetterTomorrow

in reply to Zerush • 1 mese fa • •

Billion starts with a “B”

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RememberTheApollo_

in reply to Zerush • 1 mese fa • •

Like 25¢ per user.

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in reply to RememberTheApollo_

ayyy

in reply to RememberTheApollo_ • 1 mese fa • •

A quarter of a cent?

in reply to ayyy

RememberTheApollo_

in reply to ayyy • 1 mese fa • •

Redundant. Thanks for pointing that out.

in reply to Zerush

InFerNo

in reply to Zerush • 1 mese fa • •

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?

Questa voce è stata modificata (1 mese fa)