Google Opposes Paying Another $2.36B in Privacy Case
Google opposed a motion from a group of consumers asking the company to pay $2.36 billion in addition to a $425 million verdict handed down against it over privacy violations in September. In a court document filed Wednesday, Google said the request is “wildly disproportionate, technically infeasible, and contrary to the public interest.”
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Plaintiffs filed the class action in 2020 at the U.S. District Court for Northern California. The complaint accused Google of invading users' privacy and violating the law when it intercepted, tracked, collected and sold user browsing history and activity data, regardless of the privacy setting consumers chose.
On Sept. 4, the jury found the plaintiffs proved invasion of privacy and intrusion upon seclusion, and that Google hadn't proved that it had user consent as a defense against the charges (case 3:20-cv-04688). Google said it would appeal the ruling (see 2509040049).
In late October, some consumers in the case asked Google to pay an additional $2.36 billion, a number they claimed was attributable to the profits the company made off their data while the case was happening (see 2510230036).
The relief the consumers seek is “prospective and requires a showing of imminent, irreparable harm,” but “here, there is none,” Google said Wednesday. The company “has proactively and preemptively amended the relevant … privacy disclosures” as required by “the jury’s narrow verdict.”
Also, the motion for additional payment includes a requirement “that Google cease collecting data essential for Google Analytics for Firebase,” which “would cripple a service relied upon by millions of app developers in order to deliver a functional analytics product to consumers,” the company said.
In addition, the demand to delete certain data is "unduly burdensome," not to mention “technologically impossible without dismantling the very infrastructure designed to protect user privacy.”