Google faces a $2.36 billion lawsuit for spying on 98 million users

Google is facing the largest privacy case of the decade. A federal jury in San Francisco determined that the company must pay 425 million dollars after confirming that it collected data illegally.

However, the users' attorneys consider that amount insufficient. On October 22, they filed a brief before Judge Richard Seeborg requesting that Google return an additional 2.36 billion dollars.

How the case began and why it affects millions

The conflict dates back to July 2020, when Aníbal Rodríguez sued Google for misleading users regarding their privacy. According to the lawsuit, Google continued collecting data even when people disabled the "Web & App Activity" setting.

The key was Firebase, a tool present in 97 percent of the most popular Android apps and in more than half of iPhones. This resulted in massive reach.

• 98 million affected users.
• 174 million devices involved.

A record verdict

The plaintiffs had requested 31 billion dollars, but the jury awarded only 425 million because it understood that Google did not act with malice. For lead attorney David Boies, the verdict still confirmed that the company's conduct was "highly offensive" and without consent.

The new claim argues that the current compensation is not enough to repair the damage and emphasizes that Google has not changed any of its policies after losing the trial.

Background: other multimillion-dollar sanctions

Google has already paid nearly 1.4 billion to Texas for similar violations and another 9 million in Illinois. In addition, in April 2024, it agreed to destroy billions of records linked to incognito mode to settle another lawsuit.

The attorneys argue that the new figures represent a minimal compensation compared to the economic benefit obtained from the use of private data.