The US jury has a fine for watching apps in apps. The company faces criticism for limited control over user data.
On Wednesday, the US federal jury ordered Google to pay $ 425 million for collecting information from applications on smartphones that it received despite privacy settings. According to the AFP report, TASR reports this.
“This case concerns the unlawful recording of private consumer activities in mobile apps by Google,” the collective action filed in July 2020.
The planned appeal
“The decision incorrectly interprets the functioning of our products and we will refer to it,” said Google spokesman Jose Castaneda. “Our privacy tools provide people control their data and when they turn off personalization, we respect their decision,” he stressed.
In the litigation, the applicants state that Google has captured, watched, collected, and sold users’ activity, no matter what protection settings they have chosen. “Google’s promises and guarantees in the field of privacy are obvious lies,” the action says.
French sanctions
Google has been under pressure for a long time to find a balance between advertising profits and user privacy protection.
On Wednesday, it also fined EUR 325 million from the French National Office for Information Technology and Freedom (CNIL) for violating the Act on Internet Cookies. These are files that store websites in your browsers and can collect user -activity data. According to Cnil, the company did not obtain informed user consent to their use. Google can still appeal in this case.
