Privacy debates, which have long been busy in the United States for a long time, have turned into a serious case for Google. The claim that the data continued to be collected despite the fact that users closed the monitoring settings resulted in the decision of the Federal jury. It was decided to pay $ 425 million. This decision has led to the reunion of the standards of confidentiality in the digital world.
The trial process began with an individual application opened in July 2020. In the application, Google’s web and application activity is closed, even with different applications, it was claimed that data flow. It was claimed that the information collected through third -party applications such as Uber and Instagram ignored users’ preferences. This situation brought up the opinion that consumers were misleading. With the decision of the judge Richard Seeborg, the case was moved to the status of a lawsuit and covered millions of people.
Google continues to defend its attitude
The collective lawsuit process expanded to the extent of 98 million users and 174 million devices. The plaintiff lawyers claimed that users were damaged, claiming that 31 billion dollars of compensation. However, the jury found this demand excessively and only accepted the claim of two confidentiality violations. It was concluded that Google did not violate the computer data access law in California. In addition, the company does not act maliciously said.
With this approach of the jury, criminal compensation fell from the agenda and the amount of payment was limited to $ 425 million. However, the decision is made for Google to create a greater burden in terms of reputation rather than cost. Because this case points to a serious damage to users’ confidence in the company. In addition, the pressure on the privacy practices of technology companies is increasing. Especially the lawsuits filed in the USA show that the sensitivity on this issue is rising every year.
Google spokesman Jose Castana, defended the company’s attitude after the decision. Castaneda said that the jury misrepresented how the products work. In addition, Google offers developed tools to manage users. He also emphasized that this preference is taken into consideration when the personalization is closed. In addition, the company will apply for appeal.
The appeal process seems to be decisive for the future of the case. Although Google has the power to meet this payment financially, it may not be easy to compensate for reputation. On the other hand, trust problems on the user side do not seem to disappear in the short term. The defenses of the company will affect both users’ perception of trust and the attitude of the courts. Despite this, the case will continue to echo throughout the sector.
A similar table was seen in another case opened in 2020. It was claimed that Google continued to watch users in the secret mode. In 2023, the company accepted an agreement of $ 5 billion and closed the process. A year later, he acknowledged that some information was collected in the secret mode. He promised to delete most of this information.
It is not a coincidence that confidentiality debates have been on the technology agenda for years. Internet users question how their data is processed. However, regulatory institutions increase pressure on companies in a way that meets these demands. But since the business models of big technology companies are data -oriented, this tension does not seem to be easily solved. Nevertheless, court decisions play a critical role in the search for balance.
This case, Google, is an example for the future of the company, not only the company, but the whole sector. Because each decision directly affects users’ confidence in technology giants. When this trust is lost, the way companies offer their products are also questioned. In addition to all these, the methods of processing data will be subject to firm inspection in the coming years. This leads to the users to demand more words in a digital environment.