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因滥用安卓用户数据,美国加州陪审团裁定谷歌赔偿3.15亿美元
Huan Qiu Wang·2025-07-02 05:41

Core Viewpoint - A landmark ruling by a jury in Santa Clara County, California, found that Alphabet, Google's parent company, abused Android user privacy and must pay a total of $314.6 million in damages to Android smartphone users in the state, marking a significant victory in a collective lawsuit against tech giants regarding "background data transmission" practices [1][3]. Group 1 - The plaintiffs, representing California Android users, accused Google of embedding hidden mechanisms in the Android system since 2014, which allowed the continuous transmission of sensitive information to Google servers, even when users did not actively use Google services [3]. - The jury determined that this behavior constituted "data theft without effective user consent," and users could not completely disable data transmission through standard settings [3]. - The ruling shifted the focus from the traditional debate of "user consent" to the "actual control" tech companies have over user data, with the plaintiffs citing California's Unfair Competition Law (UCL) to argue that Google created a "consent trap" [3]. Group 2 - The jury emphasized that Google's scale and methods of converting user data into commercial assets exceeded reasonable business needs, stating that users should not be forced to become "fuel for Google's advertising machine" simply for using basic communication tools [3]. - Google strongly opposed the ruling and announced plans to appeal to the California Supreme Court, arguing that device manufacturers bear primary responsibility for system customization under the open-source architecture of Android [3]. - The jury rejected Google's defense, asserting that Google, as the dominant player in the Android ecosystem, holds ultimate responsibility for data transmission behaviors at the foundational level [3]. Group 3 - According to the ruling, the compensation will be distributed proportionally to California residents who used Android devices between January 1, 2014, and July 1, 2025, with preliminary estimates suggesting each user could receive approximately $12 to $15, depending on device usage duration and data transmission volume [4]. - Google is required to submit compliance reports on data collection to the California Attorney General quarterly for the next five years and will be subject to oversight by a third-party auditing agency [4]. - This case coincides with the Federal Trade Commission's (FTC) push for the American Data Privacy Protection Act (ADPPA), which, if passed, would grant users "data portability rights" and "the right to be forgotten," along with establishing a dedicated agency to regulate tech giants' data practices [4].