California jury orders Google to pay $314 million over data transfers from Android phones

A California jury has ordered Google to pay $314 million for collecting data from Android phones while they were connected to cellular networks, a practice that plaintiffs said equated to stealing a resource that they had paid for.

The verdict, issued Tuesday by a jury in a Northern California state court, is the culmination of a class-action lawsuit that began in 2019. The plaintiffs argued that Google could have waited until the devices were connected to WiFi networks, thus avoiding any costs related to cellular plans.

Plaintiffs’ attorneys argued that the cellular data activity occurred silently and without users’ consent while the Android devices were in “purses and pockets, and even while sitting seemingly idle on plaintiffs’ nightstands as they slept.”

Read more at The Record