Google fined $425 million for privacy violations

San Francisco: A federal court in San Francisco has ordered technology company Google (Alphabet) to pay $425 million in damages for violating user privacy.

The decision came after a lawsuit alleging that Google collected data from millions of users' mobile devices for the past eight years.

In the lawsuit, users claimed that Google hurt their trust and used the data to make huge profits, so they demanded $31 billion in damages, but the jury found Google liable for only $425 million.

The jury ruled that Google was guilty of two counts of violating privacy, but it could not be proven that the company did so with malice; therefore, no additional punishment was imposed on it.

It is pertinent to note that some time ago, a court in Argentina ordered Google to pay damages for taking an inappropriate picture of a citizen. Google denied any corruption or malice in the case.