Google Ordered to Pay Out Millions of Dollars to Californians

A jury in San Jose, California, ruled that Alphabet's Google must pay more than $314.6 million to Android smartphone users in the state after it misused customers' cellphone data.

The verdict, delivered on Tuesday, found Google liable for collecting information from idle Android devices without user permission, sending and receiving data even when phones were inactive. Google has said it did nothing wrong and will appeal.

Why It Matters

The lawsuit has broader implications for the data usage of phones running the Android OS when they idle. A similar lawsuit representing Android users in the other 49 states is still pending in federal court in San Jose, with a trial scheduled for April 2026. According to tech news outlet Silicon, an equivalent verdict in this case could cost Google billions of dollars.

What To Know

The class action lawsuit was brought on behalf of an estimated 14 million California Android users, first filed in 2019. Plaintiffs argued that Google's actions imposed "mandatory and unavoidable burdens" for its own benefit, primarily using the data for targeted advertising and consuming users' cellular data at their expense.

The plaintiffs' legal team argued that phone users' data is their personal property under California law and that Google is thus liable for data used while customers' phones were idle dating back to 2016.

Google spokesperson Jose Castaneda told Newsweek the company would appeal the decision, arguing that the ruling misunderstood how customer data was being used. Google told the court that users consented to data transfers via the company's terms of service and privacy policies and argued that no Android users were harmed.

Google is one of several major tech companies expected to reduce its headcount in July, according to Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act notices, which must be issued prior to layoffs. According to the Los Angeles Times, Google was one of a number of Bay Area companies to lay off employees in the first quarter of the year.

At the end of June, Google agreed to purchase 200 megawatts of power from Commonwealth Fusion Systems, a Massachusetts company, in what the companies called the "first direct power purchase agreement in history" involving a fusion energy company.

What People Are Saying

Google spokesperson Jose Castaneda told Newsweek: "We strongly disagree with today's decision and will appeal. This ruling is a setback for users, as it misunderstands services that are critical to the security, performance, and reliability of Android devices."

Glen Summers, the plaintiffs' attorney, said in a statement provided to Newsweek: "We're deeply gratified by the jury's verdict. The evidence at trial revealed that Google secretly collects a massive amount of information from Android smartphones, and that in transmitting this information to its data centers Google needlessly consumes Android owners' cellular data without their knowledge or consent.

"The evidence also revealed that for many years Google has known that Android settings, which purport to allow users to turn off background mobile data usage, actually do not stop the transfers, creating a false illusion that users have the ability to control whether their mobile data is used. With its verdict, the jury sends a loud message to Google that it must actually honor its commitment to respect user choice and not just pay lip service to it."

What Happens Next

Google has already announced that it will appeal Tuesday's verdict. If the outcome is repeated in the larger Google data trial set for April 2026, it could cost the company billions of dollars in fines.

Update 7/3/25, 10:47 a.m. ET: This story has been updated with a comment from Glen Summers.