Collecting digital footprints despite users turning off the key

A California jury has ruled that Google must pay $425 million in damages after finding the company violated users’ privacy by collecting data even when people had turned off a key tracking setting. The case, one of the largest privacy-related class actions in recent years, covers nearly 98 million users and raises new questions about how much control individuals really have over their personal information online.

The lawsuit, originally filed in July 2020 as Rodriguez v. Google LLC, accused the company of tracking users even after they switched off the “Web & App Activity” setting in their