Google Will Pay $62 Million To Nonprofits For Tracking Users Without Consent

Google will be paying $62 million to several nonprofits on behalf of people who claim the company violated common law privacy rights by keeping track of their location data without taking their permission.

US District Judge Edward Davila has approved the settlement in court, calling it "an extremely successful result." Although the company has assured users their data wouldn’t be tracked if they turn off the location history feature on their devices. An AP investigation found otherwise, the plaintiffs claimed in their 2018 class action.

The investigation further suggested that Google continued to access and store geolocation information of users who turned off their location history. The plaintiffs said the company violated the California Invasion of Privacy Act and California’s Constitutional Right to Privacy.

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Google To Pay A Hefty Amount For Breaking The Law

As per the agreement will need Google LLC to pay $62 million into a non-reversionary cash fund that will be directed towards 21 nonprofit organizations for the defense of the class members’ privacy rights.

Moreover, the money will also cover the $18.6 million in attorney fees of the plaintiffs along with $151,756.23 unreimbursed expenses and awards of $5,000 for each of the three settlement class representatives.

Attorney Ted Franck represented three class members who objected to the decision to give the award to nonprofits such as the American Civil Liberties Union. He argued that companies could use the money to protect people’s location and medical info as a means to “promote abortion rights” or make funding decisions.

Frank asked the judge that the settlement should pick “non-political organizations” to represent the “politically diverse class.” The judge saw no apparent reason to change the decision to approve the settlement.

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Preliminary Agreement was approved In November 2023

The judge approved a preliminary version of the agreement last year in November, which applied to all US residents who were using one or more mobile devices and whose information was stored by the company even when the location history was disabled at any time from 2014 to 2023.

In October 2021, the judge granted only a few of the company’s motions to dismiss the case and denied the plaintiffs’ attempt to restart the discovery process. The judge only granted the plaintiffs’ breach of contract claim. The named plaintiffs were Napoleon Patacsil, Michael Childs, Najat Oshana, Nurudaaym Mahon, and Noe Gamboa.