Google has to pay over $300 million to Android users in California, a jury in San Jose said. To be more accurate, the company has to pay $314.6 million fine for misusing customers’ cellphone data.
Google has been slapped with a $314.6 million fine over data grabs
The jury concluded that Google was liable for sending and receiving information from devices without users’ permission, while the devices were idle. The lawsuit referred to this as “mandatory and unavoidable burdens shouldered by Android device users for Google’s benefit.”
Following the verdict, Google announced an appeal. The company’s representative, Jose Castaneda, said that the verdict “misunderstands services that are critical to the security, performance, and reliability of Android devices.”
The plaintiffs’ attorney, Glen Summers, said that the verdict “forcefully vindicates the merits of this case and reflects the seriousness of Google’s misconduct.”
This case was originally brought up way back in 2019
This case was originally filed way back in 2019. It was the class action lawsuit filed in state court. It was filed on behalf of 14 million Californians. It argued that Google collected information from idle phones running Android to benefit the company. IT was collected for uses like targeted advertising, consuming Android users’ cellular data at their expense, and so on.
During the trial, Google did argue that users agreed to this. The company said that no Android users were harmed by these data transfers, and that users agreed to them in the company’s terms of service and privacy policies.
Unless Google ends up having a successful appeal, it will have to pay $314.6 million, which will be spread over 14 million Android users in California.
This is not the only such lawsuit, unfortunately for Google. Another group filed a similar lawsuit in federal court in San Jose. The same claims were brought up on behalf of Android users in the other 49 states. That case will go to trial in April next year.
The post Google Slapped with $314 Million Fine Over Sneaky Data Grabs appeared first on Android Headlines.
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