Google has been ordered by a court docket within the U.S. state of California to pay $314 million over expenses that it misused Android system customers’ mobile knowledge after they had been idle to passively ship data to the corporate.
The decision marks an finish to a authorized class-action grievance that was initially filed in August 2019.
Of their lawsuit, the plaintiffs argued that Google’s Android working system leverages customers’ mobile knowledge to transmit a “number of data to Google” with out their permission, even when their gadgets are saved in an idle state.
“Though Google might make it in order that these transfers occur solely when the telephones are linked to Wi-Fi, Google as an alternative designed these transfers to allow them to additionally happen over a mobile community,” they stated.
“Google’s unauthorized use of their mobile knowledge violates California regulation and requires Google to compensate Plaintiffs for the worth of the mobile knowledge that Google makes use of for its personal profit with out their permission.”
The transfers, the plaintiffs argued, happen when Google properties are open and working within the background, even in conditions the place a consumer has closed all Google apps, and their system is dormant, thereby misappropriating customers’ mobile knowledge allowances.
In a single occasion, the plaintiffs discovered {that a} Samsung Galaxy S7 system with the default settings and the usual pre-loaded apps, and linked to a brand new Google account, despatched and obtained 8.88 MB/day of mobile knowledge, out of which 94% of the communications had been between Google and the system.
The data alternate occurred roughly 389 instances inside a span of 24 hours. The transferred data primarily consisted of log information containing working system metrics, community state, and the checklist of open apps.
“Log information are usually not time-sensitive, and transmission of them might simply be delayed till Wi-Fi is offered,” in response to court docket paperwork.
“Google might additionally program Android to permit customers to allow passive transfers solely when they’re on Wi-Fi connections, however apparently it has chosen not to take action. As a substitute, Google has chosen to easily reap the benefits of Plaintiffs’ mobile knowledge allowances.”
That is not all. The court docket grievance additionally cited one other 2018 experiment that discovered that an Android system that was “outwardly dormant and stationary” however had the Chrome internet browser app opened and within the background resulted in about 900 passive transfers in 24 hours.
Compared, a stationary and untouched iPhone with the Safari browser open within the background despatched “considerably much less data,” and famous that Apple’s working system provides customers better management in relation to passive data transfers.
Following a trial that commenced on June 2, 2025, the jury sided with the plaintiffs, stating the tech large was answerable for performing these passive knowledge transfers and inflicting them to shoulder what they stated had been “obligatory and unavoidable burdens […] for Google’s profit and comfort.”
In a press release to Reuters, Google stated it will attraction the choice and contended the information transfers are associated to “providers which are crucial to the safety, efficiency, and reliability of Android gadgets.” The corporate additionally identified that it discloses the transfers in its phrases of use settlement and obtains consent for them.
The jury resolution comes almost two months after the corporate agreed to pay almost $1.4 billion to settle two lawsuits within the state of Texas that accused it of monitoring customers’ private location and sustaining their facial recognition knowledge with out consent.
The event additionally follows a press release from Meta that it is interesting a European Fee’s resolution in April 2025 that its pay-or-consent mannequin violates the area’s Digital Markets Act (DMA), fining it €200 million ($227 million).
“The choice mandates that Meta should provide a much less personalised advertisements service totally free, disregarding value, affect, or effectiveness, and imposes a probably unviable enterprise mannequin,” the corporate stated.
“This overlooks the business actuality that, in a market economic system, Meta deserves honest compensation for the precious and modern providers that customers select to make use of – a precept important to sustaining innovation and financial development.
