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Investing.com-- A federal jury on Wednesday ordered Alphabet’s (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Google to pay $425 million over a class action lawsuit that accused the internet giant of collecting data from users despite them opting out of tracking.
A Google spokesperson said the decision "misunderstands how our products work," and that the company intended to appeal it. They said businesses using Google Analytics still collected some traffic data even if users opted out of Web & App Activity tracking, but that the data collected did not identify users, and that Google respected its users’ choices in privacy.
The class action, which was filed in 2020, accused Google of accessing user mobile devices to collect their data, even if they had disabled data collection under its Web & App Activity settings.
The lawsuit had initially sought more than $31 billion in damages. The jury found Google guilty on two of the three charges, with Google not liable for any punitive damages.
The class action lawsuit had claimed that Google continued to collect user data through apps such as Uber Technologies Inc (NYSE:UBER), Venmo, and Meta Platforms’ (NASDAQ:META) Instagram– all of which use certain Google analytics.
The company had earlier this year paid nearly $1.4 billion to Texas over allegations that it violated state privacy laws.
The class action was unrelated to a separate antitrust ruling on Google this week, where the company was allowed to keep its Chrome browser and Android operating system, but was ordered to begin sharing some search data with its rivals.