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Google to pay $425 million after years of improper spying on smartphone activity
Fox Business ^ | 9/05/25 | Landon Mion

Posted on 09/05/2025 9:19:25 AM PDT by Libloather

A federal jury ordered Google to pay $425.7 million for invading users' privacy by collecting data over an eight-year period on millions of people who had turned off a tracking feature in their Google account.

The verdict on Wednesday in San Francisco comes after a trial in a class-action case applying to roughly 98 million users in the U.S. between July 1, 2016, and Sept. 23, 2024. The jury found that the company had been spying on users in violation of California privacy laws.

Google denied that it was improperly accessing devices to collect, save, and use data of people who believed they had protected their online activity with privacy controls.

"This decision misunderstands how our products work," Google spokesperson Jose Castaneda said in a statement to Reuters. "Our privacy tools give people control over their data, and when they turn off personalization, we honor that choice."

Castaneda said the company plans to appeal the verdict.

The class action lawsuit was filed in July 2020, accusing Google of continuing to collect data on users who had turned on privacy controls.

During the trial, Google said the data collected was "nonpersonal, pseudonymous, and stored in segregated, secured, and encrypted locations."

The company claimed the data was not associated with users' Google accounts or any user’s identity.

(Excerpt) Read more at foxbusiness.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Computers/Internet; History; Local News
KEYWORDS: google; lawsuit; smartphone; spying
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Braking news - your phone is a tracking device.
1 posted on 09/05/2025 9:19:25 AM PDT by Libloather
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To: Libloather

woohoo, 425 million phone users will get $.50


2 posted on 09/05/2025 9:21:31 AM PDT by Bob434 (Time flies like an arrow, fruit flies like a banana)
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To: Libloather

To Google: Did that slider feature say “Off” to “Tracking?”

If so, you lose.


3 posted on 09/05/2025 9:21:32 AM PDT by ConservativeMind (Trump: Befuddling Democrats, Republicans, and the Media for the benefit of the US and all mankind.)
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To: Libloather

And people think the mark of the beast is yet to come.


4 posted on 09/05/2025 9:22:49 AM PDT by Harpotoo (Being a socialist is a lot easier than having to WORK like the rest of US;-))
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To: Libloather

But, but, no one can track me, my cell phone is pass word protected! /s/

I’ve been told that by a few people. Also when I tell some folks their texts, pictures, whereabouts, and recordings can be accessed I get that look like they think I’m stupid. Tell them their cell phone can be used to record them, then they really laugh.

Americans are so dumb they deserve to be tracked.


5 posted on 09/05/2025 9:23:15 AM PDT by redfreedom (They’re AWFUL...Affuent White Female Urban Leftists)
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To: redfreedom

Wow that’s harsh.


6 posted on 09/05/2025 9:29:41 AM PDT by Menehune56 ("Let them hate so long as they fear" (Oderint Dum Metuant), Lucius Accius (170 BC - 86 BC)
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To: redfreedom

Its not that it happened, it is that courts consider not worthy of bend a company over a barrel and take away gross profits for a quarter kind of penalty. Google spend 500 million per month on the marketing people who sit around and reimage the letter G or the number 100. They spend $49.326 Billion last year in building new products. So 500 million over 8 years of marketing you to their customers, advertisers and goverments is less than a rounding error.

Great win for the lawyers on both sides, 200 million in billing each.


7 posted on 09/05/2025 9:33:19 AM PDT by protoconservative (Been Conservative Before You Were Born )
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To: Libloather

After the lawyers take their cut, and expenses, the actual users will each receive, well a number that is so small it will not even purchase a small modest fast food breakfast. And Google, they write this off as a business expense and go on about their business of spying on everyone they can. Google does have a motto: “Do Evil” or similar, I believe.


8 posted on 09/05/2025 9:34:58 AM PDT by rigelkentaurus
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To: All

Would be nice if big business and big government didn’t spy on us


9 posted on 09/05/2025 9:35:30 AM PDT by escapefromboston (Peace, commerce and honest friendship with all nations, entangling alliances with none.)
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To: Libloather

Be very wary of Big Tech, because Big Tech spies for Big Brother.


10 posted on 09/05/2025 9:37:14 AM PDT by Dr. Franklin ("A republic, if you can keep it." )
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To: Libloather

They can find that amount in their couch cushions.


11 posted on 09/05/2025 9:45:18 AM PDT by ProtectOurFreedom
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To: Harpotoo

You know, I have never thought of a cell phone that way, but the way they are used these days is pretty close to exactly that mark, and with digital currency, a cell phone could very well be the only way you conduct commerce....


12 posted on 09/05/2025 9:53:34 AM PDT by SPDSHDW (A sinner saved by Jesus)
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To: Libloather

How will I know what I’m interested in if Google doesn’t track and tell me?


13 posted on 09/05/2025 9:54:27 AM PDT by bigbob (If thou doth eff around, thou wilt findeth out)
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To: Libloather

Drop in the bucket. They should be put out of business.


14 posted on 09/05/2025 9:58:55 AM PDT by Racketeer
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To: Bob434

Should be trillions.


15 posted on 09/05/2025 10:42:03 AM PDT by vivenne (7Come to think of it. Fact)
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To: Libloather


G**gle is the largest and most pervasive censor and manipulator of information that has ever existed ...






... at least on this planet.



G**gle exists entirely to modify what you think by controlling what you see and read. If you use any G**gle product (without first making some technically astute modifications), you're as much as begging for Progressive Indoctrination and/or a proctological exam every time you fire up a PC or handheld digital device.

16 posted on 09/05/2025 11:08:57 AM PDT by Paal Gulli
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To: Libloather

1984 no surprise guess why there are no more pay phones anymore comrade.


17 posted on 09/05/2025 12:02:13 PM PDT by Vaduz
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To: Bob434

woohoo, 425 million phone users will get $.50
= = =

And that is wasted on the envelope stamp.


18 posted on 09/05/2025 12:14:44 PM PDT by Scrambler Bob (Running Rampant, and not endorsing nonsense; My pronoun is EXIT. And I am generally full of /S)
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To: Libloather

My next phone, after the present Motorola, will be a Linux Pine phone.


19 posted on 09/05/2025 12:37:30 PM PDT by bicyclerepair
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To: Libloather
Pocket change, Cost of doing business.

Isn't that really their *main* business? Tricking people into being targets of spying?

20 posted on 09/05/2025 12:47:51 PM PDT by Salman (It's not a slippery slope if it was part of the program all along.)
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