Judge Rejects Google's Bid to Overturn $425M Privacy Verdict
A federal judge has rejected Google's bid to overturn a $425 million verdict against the company for allegedly violating mobile users' privacy.
The class-action lawsuit, which dates back to 2020, claimed that Google gathered analytics information from smartphone users even after they had opted out of data collection.
In his ruling, Judge Richard Seeborg wrote that Google 'took a shot at trial, and it lost,' implying that the company's arguments were not persuasive enough to warrant a reversal of the verdict.
The lawsuit alleged that Google used its Analytics for Firebase code to collect app-related data from users who had toggled off their 'Web & App Activity' setting. The jury found in favor of the plaintiffs on two related privacy claims, which both required jurors to find that mobile users had a reasonable expectation of privacy in the data and that Google engaged in highly offensive conduct.