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SAN FRANCISCO (CN) — A jury found Wednesday that Google violated users’ privacy by collecting their data even after they opted out of app activity tracking.
However, jurors found that Google did not violate the California Comprehensive Computer Data Access and Fraud Act. They awarded the class more than $425 million in compensatory damages, but declined to give other damages.
Lead plaintiff Anibal Rodriguez sued Google in July 2020, claiming the company harvests app data despite telling Google users that they can disable such tracking. The case focuses on the privacy settings “Web & App Activity” and a sub-setting “supplemental Web & App Activity,” as well as the California Comprehensive Computer Data Access and Fraud Act.
In closing arguments, David Boies of Boies Schiller and Flexner, an attorney for the plaintiffs, argued that Google never got users’ permission to collect and use data collected once web activity was toggled off.
He also said Google was “pushing a control story,” adding that the company “falsely told users that they could control, see, and delete the data Google collected from their activity.”
“None of that is true,” he said. “This is a situation where people were given a purported choice, but no control.”
Boies said he was pleased with the verdict but declined to comment further.
Google attorney Benedict Hur of Cooley LLP told jurors Google “certainly thought” it had permission to access the data. He added that Google lets users know it will continue to collect certain types of data, even if they toggle off web activity.
“Google tells users the moment they turn sWAA off, they can learn about the data Google continues to collect and why. … Google tells users exactly what plaintiff’s lawyers say they didn’t,” he said.
Hur also argued that no class members had been harmed in the case.
“This is not a case where there is actually wrongful conduct, not a case where data was leaked, not a case where Google was deceptive. There is no harm in this case,” he said.
In closing arguments, the class asked for more than $30 billion in compensatory damages for the class of nearly 100 million Google users who toggled the web activity setting off. Boies explained the large amount of damages takes into account the number of devices, the value of the data collected, and the number of months the plaintiffs assert Google was violating the law.
The plaintiffs also asked for compensation for unjust enrichment and nominal damages, along with punitive damages to “deter” Google’s conduct.
When asked after the verdict was handed down, jurors said they wanted more testimony from class representatives and more emphasis on the representative’s damages and losses may have been more effective.
They said they awarded compensatory damages because there was a value to the data Google took, and that users who turned off web activity probably would have a higher monetary value for their data. However, they said they did not give any other damages because they found no harm done to the plaintiffs and that Google would not have seen a huge loss of revenue without the data.
“Are you going to turn sWAA off?” one lawyer asked the jurors.
“Now we know it doesn’t matter,” Michael Bowman, the jury foreperson, responded to the lawyer’s laughter.
U.S. District Court Judge Richard Seeborg, a Barack Obama appointee, presided over the trial.
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