Privacy

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Privacy has become a very important issue in modern society, with companies and governments constantly abusing their power, more and more people are waking up to the importance of digital privacy.

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Google misled users about their privacy and now owes them $425m, says court (www.malwarebytes.com)

submitted 1 day ago by Zerush@lemmy.ml to c/privacy@lemmy.ml

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A court ordered Google to pay $425 million after finding the company misled 98 million users about data collection through its "Web & App Activity" setting[^1]. The case revealed Google continued gathering user data via Firebase, a monitoring database embedded in 97% of top Android apps and 54% of leading iOS apps, even after users disabled data collection[^1].

Google's internal communications showed the company was "intentionally vague" about its data collection practices because being transparent "could sound alarming to users," according to district judge Richard Seeborg[^1].

This ruling adds to Google's recent privacy settlements, including:

$392 million paid to 40 states in 2023 for location tracking violations
$40 million to Washington state for similar location tracking issues
$1.38 billion to Texas in 2025 over location tracking and incognito mode claims[^1]

Google plans to appeal the $425 million verdict, with spokesperson Jose Castaneda stating "This decision misunderstands how our products work" and asserting that Google honors user privacy choices[^1].

[^1]: Malwarebytes - Google misled users about their privacy and now owes them $425m, says court

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[–] suicidaleggroll@lemmy.world 48 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

They continued harvesting data from users after the users explicitly disabled an option to shut that off. And for that, they owe $4 a person. When are we going to starting fining these companies properly? How about a thousand dollars a person for an infraction like this? Maybe a $98 billion fine might get them to start caring.

[–] frostysauce@lemmy.world 3 points 17 hours ago

We need a dearth penalty for corporations.