California Jury Finds Google Illegally Tracked Android Users, Orders $314 Million Fine

Google has illegally collected data from Android users. A jury in California San Jose came to this assessment. Because of this, the company is now supposed to pay a high fine – against which it wants to defend itself.

Details of the user permit

The procedure was about Google data from Android smartphones collected while the devices were not used. The explicit approval of the users was lacking, it said. So there was only one for cases in which the users themselves were active on the device and the platform operator could thus obtain information about their usage behavior.

The court now followed the plaintiffs’ argument that Google “unavoidable and compulsive burdens” passed on users in order to provide themselves with an economic advantage – for example through personalized advertising. As a result, a fine of $ 314.6 million was determined against the group, the news agency reported Reuters.

The class lawsuit was submitted in 2019 on behalf of around 14 million Android users in the US state of California. The plaintiffs accused Google of using the mobile data consumption of the users for their own purposes without informing them transparently or leaving them a clear choice.

Larger complaint is pending

Google spokesman Jose Castaneda criticized the judgment and immediately announced an appeal. In a statement, he said that the court had misinterpreted the functionality of important security and service services of the Android system. The plaintiff lawyer Glen Summers, on the other hand, welcomed the judgment as a “powerful confirmation” of the allegations and saw it a clear signal for the responsibility of large technology groups when dealing with user data.

In addition to the now decided lawsuit in California, a separate procedure also runs in front of a federal court in San Jose. There, another group complains on behalf of Android users from the remaining 49 US states. The start of the trial is scheduled for April 2026.