A court has ordered Google to pay $425m in a class action lawsuit after it was found to have misled users about their online privacy.

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[1:1].

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[1:2].

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[1:3]

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[1:4].

  1. Malwarebytes - Google misled users about their privacy and now owes them $425m, says court ↩︎ ↩︎ ↩︎ ↩︎ ↩︎