*A United States Federal court rules that Google, a global technology giant, violated its own assurances by continuing to collect, save and use consumers’ personal data despite settings in its Web & App Activity tool supposedly, designed to disable such illegal tracking in cyberspace

Gbenga Kayode | 绿帽献妻

Facing antitrust and privacy cases, a Federal court in the United States (US) has ruled that Google illegally, tracked users, and it ordered the global tech giant to pay $425 million in damages for privacy violations.

绿帽献妻 reports the technology company breached platform users鈥� privacy by collecting data from millions of people even after they had switched off a key tracking feature.

The court ruling, during the week, was said to be the latest legal setback for Google, which has continued to face antitrust and privacy cases.

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The ruling followed a class action lawsuit instituted by affected consumers, who said the Big Tech violated its own assurances by continuing to collect, save and use personal data despite settings in its Web & App Activity tool that were supposed to disable such tracking.

In the class action. plaintiffs had been seeking over $31billion in damages, according to report.

A jury found Google liable on two of three privacy claims but concluded the company had not acted with malice.

The case, filed since July 2020, represents around 98 million users and 174 million devices.

It equally alleged Google鈥檚 data collection extended into hundreds of thousands of apps, including those from Uber, Lyft, Amazon, Alibaba, Instagram and Facebook.

However, Google has denied wrongdoing and vowed to appeal the judgement, BBC report said.

Company Spokesperson reportedly said: 鈥淭his decision misunderstands how our products work, and we will appeal it.

“Our privacy tools give people control over their data, and when they turn off personalisation, we honour that choice.”

The tech giant further argued that whenever Web & App Activity is disabled, businesses may still use Google Analytics to gather site and app data, but the information is anonymised, and does not personally identify individuals.

In regard to wider legal pressures, the decision adds to Google鈥檚 mounting legal troubles.

Just this week, shares in parent company Alphabet jumped over 9 percent after District Judge Amit Mehta ruled the company would not have to sell its Chrome browser in a separate antitrust case brought by the US Department of Justice.

However, Google will be barred from entering exclusive contracts and must share search data with competitors, report stated.

Meanwhile, District Judge Leonie Brinkema has already ruled that Google holds a monopoly in advertising technology. She is set to oversee a remedies trial later this month that could shape the future of the company鈥檚 lucrative ad business.

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