Google has taken the first step toward appealing a ruling requiring the company to pay $425 million for allegedly violating mobile users' privacy.
The
company, which filed a "notice of appeal" Monday, hasn't yet made substantive arguments to the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, which will hear the case.
Google's move comes in a
lawsuit dating to 2020, when lead plaintiff Anibal Rodriguez and others alleged that Google gathered analytics information even after they attempted to block data collection. They specifically alleged
that Google uses its Analytics for Firebase code -- which can collect data about app usage -- to gather app-related data even
when users toggle off a "Web & App Activity" setting.
In September, a jury determined after trial that
Google was liable for two related privacy claims -- -- "intrusion upon seclusion" and "invasion of privacy" -- and assessed damages at $425 million.
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Both claims required the
jury to find that mobile users had a reasonable expectation of privacy in the data, and that Google engaged in highly offensive conduct.
Google subsequently asked Seeborg to
vacate the verdict, arguing that the lawsuit shouldn't have proceeded as a class-action. Google specifically contended that determining whether a privacy violation is "highly offensive" requires a
person-by-person analysis.
Seeborg rejected that request, argument, writing that the mobile users' theory is tht Google's data collection was "inherently offensive."
Soon after Seeborg issued that ruling, Google again urged him to
reverse the verdict -- though for different reasons. Among others, Google said the data at issue was pseudonymous and argued that collecting "pseudonymous, de-identified data" is not highly
offensive.
Seeborg rejected that argument late last month.
"Though the nature of the data certainly mattered, its content cannot be disentangled from
the fact that Google collected it after it told users that it would not do so," he wrote.
The 9th Circuit hasn't yet set a schedule for the
appeal.