LONDON – A US body ordered tech giant Google to cough up $425 million for secretly harvesting data from smartphone apps, even when users thought their privacy settings kept them safe.
Consumers’ counsel blasted company for “spying” on people’s private app activity and selling the data for profit, calling Google’s privacy promises nothing more than “blatant lies.”
The tech giant, scrambling to defend itself, vowed to appeal saying the verdict misunderstands how our products work. Google spokesperson claimed, insisting company respects user choices. But the verdict adds yet another black mark to Google’s long-running battle over how much it really knows about its billions of users.
And that was not only hammer to fall on Wednesday. Across the Atlantic, French watchdog CNIL unleashed record-shattering fines: €325 million against Google and €150 million against fashion giant Shein for illegally forcing tracking cookies onto users without proper consent.
This is Google’s third cookie fine in France, stacking on earlier penalties of €100 million (2020) and €150 million (2021).
Google bans over dozen apps using Nadra s identity to spy on Pakistani users
