Tech giant Google faces a significant penalty in the U.S. for infringing upon users' privacy, amounting to $425 million. In addition, the company was fined €381 million in France for a similar privacy violation.
Google has been ordered to pay a combined fine of approximately $806 million by US and French authorities for alleged privacy violations.
The violations, which occurred over an eight-year period, involved Google accessing users' mobile devices to collect, save, and use their data, despite privacy assurances under its Web & App Activity setting. This breach of trust affected users in both countries.
In the US, a federal jury in San Francisco found Google liable on two of three claims of privacy violations brought by the plaintiffs. The jury did not find Google acting with malice, meaning it was not entitled to any punitive damages. The fine was imposed by the US federal jury.
On the other side of the Atlantic, the French Data Protection Authority (CNIL) sanctioned Google, focusing on the company itself rather than individual persons. Google was levied a fine of 325 million euros ($381 million) for improperly displaying ads to Gmail users and using cookies, both without Google account users' consent.
The French fine was imposed due to Google's continued collection of data from users who had switched off a tracking feature in their Google account. Similarly, the CNIL gave Google six months to ensure ads are no longer displayed between emails in Gmail users' inboxes without prior consent, and that users give valid consent to the creation of a Google account for the placement of ad trackers. Failure to comply could result in a penalty of 100,000 euros per day of delay, according to the CNIL.
Google has faced similar privacy lawsuits in the past. Earlier this year, it paid nearly $1.4 billion in a settlement with Texas over allegations the company violated the state's privacy laws. In April 2024, Google agreed to destroy billions of data records of users' private browsing activities to settle a lawsuit that alleged it tracked people who thought they were browsing privately, including in "Incognito" mode.
The class action lawsuit, filed in July 2020, claimed Google continued to collect users' data even with the setting turned off through its relationship with apps such as Uber, Venmo, and Meta's Instagram that use certain Google analytics services. The users sought more than $31 billion in damages.
Despite these penalties, Google continues to work towards improving its privacy practices and ensuring user data is protected.
