Google ordered to pay $425 million in damages: Historic decision of US jury

A US federal court has taken action against Google in a lawsuit filed against it in September 2025. This action was based on the data collection related to the privacy of Google users by the court. The jury of the US federal court found that Google was misleading not just one but millions of its users and was monitoring their online activities for a long time without the consent of its users.

Google’s users were not happy with this act but Google suffered a huge loss due to this mistake in which the company will have to pay $425 million i.e. about Rs 3,550 crore as damages.

From this action, we are getting to know that the US government is securing the private data of its people and this is being considered a big setback not only for Google but for the entire technology industry. The US government has been accusing the world’s largest internet company for a long time.

It is the world’s largest search engine website which collects the information of its users i.e. their data through its different platforms and apps. And uses it for its business benefit. But now the US federal court has made it clear that keeping in mind the privacy of its users, their data should not be leaked under any circumstances, that is, it should not be violated.

Web & App Activity

The root of this case against the world’s largest search engine Google is linked to around 2012. At that time Google gave its users the option of a setting called “Web & App Activity”. And it claimed that if a person turns off this option, then Google will not collect any data from his searched websites, searched apps or third party applications or other services. Hearing this, millions of Google users went to the settings of this website or this app and closed the application, but they did not know that even after turning off this setting, Google continued to collect data in the background. This information came to light when some technical researchers and digital rights activists investigated Google’s tracking activities.

Google was sued in 2020.

After this, a class-action lawsuit was filed in the US in 2020. A class action means that a large number of people together file a lawsuit against a large company or a large organization. About 98 million people from America were involved in the lawsuit against Google and those who were involved said that Google had violated their rights without their permission.

Google’s business strategy

During the trial, the people who had filed complaints were told that Google collected the data of users through third party applications like Instagram, Venom, Uber and its own services and used this data in its business strategy and advertising business and on the other hand Google was saying in its defense that it has not collected any personal data of anyone. The company said that whatever data was collected was “anonymous” or “pseudonymous” data and this data cannot be linked to any particular user.

Google paid 425 million dollars as compensation.

After a long debate and many testimonies, it was finally decided that Google had violated the privacy of at least two accused users, although it was also clearly stated that Google had not done this intentionally, so the company will not have to pay anything as a penalty and the court ordered Google to pay 425 million dollars only as “compensatory damages”.

If the average of this payment of $ 425 million is taken, then each person will get about four dollars i.e. ₹ 330. Although initially the plaintiffs’ team had estimated that the case could go up to more than $ 31 billion, but the court justified only reasonable compensation and did not impose such a huge penalty i.e. $ 1000 on Google.

Violation of privacy rights

After this decision of the jury, plaintiffs’ lawyer David Bois said that this is not just a matter of money but a victory of privacy rights. He said that big tech companies will now have to understand that they cannot mess with their users. On the other hand, Google issued an official statement saying that the court has misunderstood the functioning of their products and the company will appeal against this decision.

Earlier, Google has reached the court several times regarding the matter related to privacy. In July 2025 itself, a California jury ordered the company to pay damages of $ 314.6 million. That case was related to Android users and misuse of cellular data. Apart from this, Google was forced to destroy millions of “Incognito Mode” browsing records of all its users in 2024 due to another lawsuit.

Privacy of a country like India

Looking at the current news, this decision can have a deep impact on the image of Google. Technology companies are already under the surveillance of governments and regulatory bodies. Laws related to data protection are being continuously tightened in America, Europe and Asia. “Digital Personal Data Protection Act” has also been implemented in countries like India, in which companies have to keep personal data from users.

Google’s permission “I Agree”

This case has brought forth another important issue – the understanding of most users. A jury member said that most people do not read the privacy policy of technology products and they buy a product in a hurry and give permission from their phone, click on “I Agree” in this permission and blame the companies for this responsibility without understanding it and put the rules in their own words in simple language.

Google says that its data collection is done to improve user experience and for security reasons. But the question is equally important that if a user explicitly stops tracking, should the company obey his order or not? This issue was the center of this case and the jury clearly said that the company should have respected the instructions of its users.

This decision is a big lesson for tech companies. In the coming times, Google and other companies will have to bring more transparency in their product design, privacy settings and data collection policies. If this is not done, such lawsuits will arise again and again and companies may have to suffer losses of billions of dollars.

Ultimately, this lawsuit shows that user privacy has become the most important issue in the digital age. Whether it is social media, search engines or a mobile app—everywhere people now want to know how and why their data is being used. This decision on Google will probably determine the direction of the future and set new standards of data protection around the world.