![[One-sentence description of what this media is: "A photo of a vaccine site on USC campus" or "Gif of dancing banana". Important for accessibility/people who use screen readers.]](https://uscannenberg-uscannenberg-prod.web.arc-cdn.net/resizer/v2/BLIT2OYLMFAB5I7SUQRUJZN7QQ.jpg?smart=true&auth=bbbaa180ef58dda04e9a334011acc66fa4654e0de6f505a12ee479804390640d&width=4813&height=2707)
A federal jury in California ruled in a class action lawsuit against Google that the tech giant must make a payout of $425 million in reparations. The ruling comes after the company was forced to pay over $1.3 billion in settlements in Texas and nearly $9 million in Illinois.
Nearly 98 million Gmail users are affected, specifically those with Google accounts under the Gmail domain who disabled or suspended the “Web & App Activity” privacy setting in their data preferences. Anyone who met these qualifications between July 2016 and September 2024 may be eligible to receive a portion of the payout.
If the final settlement is distributed in the same way as the Illinois ruling, people may not receive a significant amount in compensation.
The plaintiff’s case calls for the settlement to be distributed pro rata, meaning equally to all those who qualify. Since the affected class of the lawsuit is broad, encompassing roughly 98 million smartphone users, a settlement of $425 million would be divided into approximately $4.33 payments before deductions are made to account for expenses.
Google moved to appeal the federal court’s ruling, and the plaintiffs seek an additional $2.36 billion in response. The motion filed by the plaintiffs stated that “Google’s misconduct has persisted [even] after the jury’s verdict.”
The motion emphasized Google’s reluctance to change its privacy settings.
“Google refused to change its privacy policy and its other WAA (Web & App Activity) and sWAA (Supplemental Web & App Activity) promises, and users remain unable to stop Google’s persistent collection from their devices for most non-Google apps,” the motion said.
The grounds for the ruling say that even though users had the option to not have their web and app activity tracked, their data was still collected through platforms not formally branded as being operated by Google, but still having Google software integrations.
Some students were not surprised by the privacy breach from Google, but were disappointed in the lack of coverage on the issue.
“I feel like I should’ve known this already,” said Alexandra Mejia, a sophomore majoring in aerospace engineering. “It didn’t surprise me, though, because at this point we have accounts everywhere and we don’t really know what we are agreeing to.”
Dylan Conti, a sophomore majoring in economics agreed.
“It’s kind of scary that none of the sites like Reddit or even Sidechat have reported the news,” Conti said. “It’s a little worrying if it’s being swept under the rug, because there’s been a lot of lawsuits popping up and every single one matters.”
Due to the motion to appeal, claims have not yet opened for the state of California. Regardless, some USC students are prepared to take action to receive compensation once applications open.
“I think I made my account in 2020, so I’d definitely be interested in filing a claim,” said Harley Huff, a sophomore majoring in music industry. “Now that I know about it, I’ll definitely look out for it.”
Conti was eligible and interested in compensation as well.
“I mean, free money is free money,” Conti said. “Well, [it’s] not free, I guess. They were selling my data.”