GOOGLE MISLED USERS ABOUT THEIR PRIVACY AND NOW OWES THEM $425M, SAYS COURT

Summary from the TLDR InfoSec newsletter

A court ordered Google to pay $425 million in a class action lawsuit after finding it misled 98 million users about its "Web & App Activity" privacy setting, which was supposed to stop data collection but didn't prevent Google from gathering information through its Firebase analytics system. Despite users thinking their activities were private, Google continued collecting data from apps like Uber, Venmo, and Instagram through a separate system, with internal communications revealing Google was "intentionally vague" about data collection practices to avoid alarming users. This adds to Google's history of privacy violations, including recent settlements totaling over $2 billion for misleading location tracking and incognito mode practices.