A jury in California has ordered Google to pay a $314.6 million fine for collecting and misusing Android users’ cellphone data without consent, Reuters reports.
The class-action lawsuit was filed on behalf of nearly 14 million Californians in 2019. It accused Google of collecting data from idle Android phones and using it for more targeted advertising and to expand its mapping capabilities. The lawsuit claimed that this consumed users’ cellular data without their consent and allowed Google to run business activities at their expense.
Google argued that the data transfer did not harm Android users and that users had consented to it when they agreed to the company’s terms of service and privacy policies. The jury, however, held Google responsible for transferring data without permission and imposing “mandatory and unavoidable burdens” on Android users, as the lawsuit claimed.
Google says it will appeal, which will likely delay any class-action payout. “This ruling is a setback for users, as it misunderstands services that are critical to the security, performance, and reliability of Android devices,” a spokesperson tells Bloomberg. The data transfer discussed in the lawsuit is necessary to keep billions of Android devices running, and it consumes less cellular data than sharing a photograph, the spokesperson added.
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This isn’t the first time Google’s data practices have been called out or attracted a fine. A similar class-action lawsuit on behalf of the other 49 states is pending in a federal court in San Jose. That trial is scheduled for April 2026, Reuters notes.
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About Jibin Joseph
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