San Francisco, California — A federal jury was presented with a request for $29 billion in damages from Google LLC users in a class action lawsuit that alleges the tech giant continued collecting personal data despite users disabling a privacy setting. The case, which commenced Tuesday, claims that almost 100 million users were misled by Google regarding the control they had over their data privacy.
During the opening arguments in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, class attorney David Boies outlined the basis of the staggering damages claim. He noted that the amount reflects the size of the user group and the duration of the alleged privacy violations spanning eight years. Boies stated that the lawsuit challenges the legality of Google’s collection of data after users opted out of the Web & App Activity setting.
Boies contended that when users switched off the tracking feature, they were led to believe that their data would no longer be monitored across various third-party applications connected to Google’s analytics services. He emphasized that the settings did not effectively disable data collection and called into question Google’s intent when presenting these privacy controls to users.
The jury’s role includes determining whether Google infringed upon the privacy rights outlined in the California Constitution and violated state computer data access laws. Judge Richard Seeborg has stated that deliberations regarding any potential punitive damages will occur at a later stage of the proceedings.
In the trial, Boies is expected to present internal communications from Google employees that he argues demonstrate the company’s awareness of the misleading nature of its Web & App Activity setting, labelling it as giving users a “false sense of security.” He referenced expert calculations that value the data obtained from each Google user at approximately $3 each month across 174 million devices owned by the class members.
Google’s attorney Benedict Hur challenged the claims in his opening statement, arguing that there has been no substantiated evidence of harm and describing the damages estimate as largely speculative. He insisted that no data breach occurred and refuted the notion that the alleged data collection was harmful to users. Hur explained that when Web & App Activity is disabled, users’ app data is still collected for aggregate analysis but is not linked to individual accounts.
The ongoing class action is distinct from previous cases against Google. A settlement earlier this year concerning the operations of Chrome’s “Incognito” mode did not result in financial recompense for users but did require changes to Google’s data retention policies. Additionally, another pending lawsuit over Google’s tracking practices when users do not sync their accounts has faced hurdles in being certified as a class action.
This trial is set against the backdrop of a recent privacy ruling against Meta Platforms Inc., where a jury found the company collected user data without proper consent in a notable case that may influence the current proceedings.
The trial is anticipated to last about three weeks. Susman Godfrey LLP and Morgan & Morgan are also representing the plaintiff class in this case, Rodriguez v. Google LLC, No. 3:20-cv-04688.
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