Google hit with $806M in penalties from US and French authorities over privacy issues

"In an unprecedented day of privacy enforcement, Google was hit with $806 million in combined penalties on Wednesday as authorities on two continents delivered a coordinated blow to the tech giant's data collection empire. The dual actions signal what analysts call a turning point in global privacy enforcement - the end of Big Tech's ability to treat regulatory oversight as fragmented and manageable. Within hours of each other, a San Francisco jury ordered Google to pay $425 million for deceiving users about privacy controls, while France's data protection authority CNIL slapped the company with a separate $381 million (€325 million) penalty for inserting ads in Gmail and manipulating cookie consent."

"The San Francisco verdict caps a legal saga that began in July 2020 when smartphone user Anibal Rodriguez discovered Google was still harvesting his data despite disabling "Web & App Activity" tracking. His complaint grew into Rodriguez v. Google LLC, Case No. 20-cv-4688-RS, a class action representing 98 million users across 174 million devices. The case exposed what plaintiffs called Google's "fake button" problem. Users who toggled off tracking believed they had stopped data collection, but court documents reveal Google continued gathering information through partnerships with apps like Uber, Venmo, and Instagram using Google's analytics services."

Google was hit with $806 million in combined penalties: $425 million from a San Francisco jury and €325 million ($381 million) from France's CNIL for deceptive data practices. The San Francisco verdict originated with Rodriguez v. Google, where a user discovered continued data harvesting despite disabling "Web & App Activity," growing into a class action representing 98 million users across 174 million devices. The case highlighted a "fake button" problem where toggling off tracking did not stop data collection. CNIL's penalty targeted inserting ads in Gmail and manipulating cookie consent. Analysts described the parallel enforcement as a transatlantic turning point in privacy oversight.

Read at Computerworld