Google Ordered to Pay $425.7 Million in Damages For Improper Smartphone Snooping (apnews.com)
- Reference: 0179043480
- News link: https://tech.slashdot.org/story/25/09/06/0550213/google-ordered-to-pay-4257-million-in-damages-for-improper-smartphone-snooping
- Source link: https://apnews.com/article/google-smartphone-surveillance-verdict-damages-c93e0150089fd47ec396f1d0abacb4a8
> The lawyers who filed the case had argued Google had used the data they collected off smartphones without users' permission to help sell ads tailored to users' individual interests — a strategy that resulted in the company reaping billions in additional revenue. The lawyers framed those ad sales as illegal profiteering that merited damages of more than $30 billion. Even though the jury came up with a far lower calculation for the damages, one of the lawyers who brought the case against Google hailed the outcome as a victory for privacy protection. "We hope this result sends a message to the tech industry that Americans will not sit idly by as their information is collected and monetized against their will," said attorney John Yanchunis of law firm Morgan & Morgan.
David Boies, the man who led the U.S. government's 2001 antitrust prosecution of Microsoft, was the plaintiffs' attorney. [2]More details from Bloomberg Law :
> The lawsuit alleged that since 2016 Google told its users that when they turned off a privacy setting known as Web & App Activity, the company would cease collecting their data from third-party apps that use Google's back end data analytics services. Google continued that collection despite its promise to users that they had control, the plaintiffs alleged. Judge Richard Seeborg certified a class of 98 million Google users who has switched the Web & App Activity setting off...
>
> Boies told the jury during closing statements that the case was about Google breaking its promise to users that they had control over their data. He pointed to Congressional testimony from Google CEO Sundar Pichai in 2018 who said users could clearly see what information the company had, all while internal communications and surveys said users were being misled about their privacy... During closing statements, Google attorney Benedict Hur of Cooley LLP said that as soon as a user click the tracking switch off, they were presented with an "Are You Sure?" screen that stated that users can "learn about the data Google continues to collect and why" by clicking an additional link.
A spokesperson for Google said they would appeal the verdict.
[1] https://apnews.com/article/google-smartphone-surveillance-verdict-damages-c93e0150089fd47ec396f1d0abacb4a8
[2] https://news.bloomberglaw.com/litigation/google-violated-privacy-of-nearly-100-million-users-jury-finds
as opposed.. (Score:2)
to proper smartphone snooping. ?
Wrong Headline (Score:4, Insightful)
It should be "Court Tells Google to Continue Violations of User Privacy". If they made multiple billions and were fined $0.5b, and none of the executives went to jail, then there is no reason not to keep doing it. The fine needs to exceed the benefit derived from the infraction.
Re: (Score:3)
These are incredibly wealthy, politically connected people. The law doesn't apply to them.
Re: (Score:2)
That $0.5b is just the government's slice of the action.
Improper? (Score:2)
The title implies that there is such a thing as "Proper" Snooping.
And snooping? That's a nice word isn't it.
I was just snooping around the attic and found an old photo album.
Not
Google snoops through every flicker of light, every footstep, every whisper your phone records, building an album of you that never ends.
Third party apps (Score:3)
The key here, that I fear most people never realize, is that this is all INDIRECT collection. "collecting their data from third-party apps that use Google's back end data analytics services." Google and many other platforms offer the "free" services and APIs to developers, who use them in their apps. Often with zero disclosure to their users. And even if they do disclose, users don't realize the implication. But those "analytics" and other services collect data about the app users. When you use addins like Privacy Badger and the warn about analytics cookies and such, that's a red flag of this surveillance.
Re: (Score:3)
Apps are scary, advertising and analytics frameworks doubly so.
Do you know that apps of the same publisher can communicate across their sandboxes on Apple devices? (I think Android uses another permission system)
Do you know, that some apps were caught to write identifiers to files, that are read by other apps that do not have the permission to read these identifiers?
Do you know, that Meta apps opened a TCP port so websites could use the user's browser to communicate with the app (such that Metas scripts in
Criminal under the EU's GDPR? (Score:2)
If so we may see some rather more serious consequences. The fines GDPR allows are spectacular... here's hoping that someone will cut and paste the evidence and outcome of this conclusion as the basis for a criminal charge in the EU.
They must have made billions doing it (Score:2)
Otherwise the fine would have been much smaller.