A court has ordered Google to pay $425 million in a class action lawsuit after it was found to have misled users about their online privacy. While the plaintiffs originally asked for $31 billion in damages, the court awarded a judgment far less, which averages out to about $4 per user. In July 2020, a class action lawsuit was filed against Google, arguing that it misled users with the “Web & App Activity” setting. The setting was supposed to stop Google from collecting data about users’ activities online and in apps. In reality, Google continued to collect data about how people were using their apps, even after they had switched off data collection in the setting. Internal Google communications indicate that Google knew it was “intentionally vague” about data collection. This isn’t the first time that Google has been found guilty of misleading users. In February 2023, it agreed to pay $392 million in a settlement with 40 states for storing users’ locations when it told them it wouldn’t. It coughed up another $40 million in a separate arrangement with Washington state later that year and also settled with Arizona for $85 million.
