Android Users to Be Compensated From $135 Million Google Settlement

About 100 million Android users could be in line for a payment under a settlement resolving a class action lawsuit against Google.

The settlement received preliminary approval on March 5 in a federal court in California, where U.S. Magistrate Judge Virginia DeMarchi noted that the lawsuit alleged that Google, without informing Android users or obtaining their consent, transmitted large amounts of their information between Android devices and its own servers for the company’s benefit.

According to the complaint, the data transfers occurred even when devices were idle, were untouched, and had all apps closed. Plaintiffs alleged the transmissions also consumed users’ cellular data without compensation.

Google denied the allegations but agreed to pay $135 million to settle the case. The settlement class includes an estimated 100 million people, and eligible class members would receive a pro rata cash payment from the net settlement fund—up to $100 per person—after attorneys’ fees, administrative costs, and service awards for the named plaintiffs are deducted.

“Although individual settlement payments are capped at $100 per class, plaintiffs’ counsel do not expect the cap to be reached,” DeMarchi wrote in her order.

The class covers people in the United States who used a mobile device running the Android operating system and accessed the internet through a cellular data network operated by a mobile carrier at any time from Nov. 12, 2017, through the date the settlement receives final approval. It excludes people participating in Csupo v. Google, a similar class action involving California residents.

Eligible class members do not need to file a claim to receive payment. Those who wish to opt out of or object to the settlement have until May 29, 2026, to do so. A final approval hearing is scheduled for June 23.

In addition to the monetary relief, Google agreed to make certain disclosures to Android users.

According to the order, when consumers set up a new Android phone, Google must disclose the conduct at issue in the case. That includes updating Google Play’s terms of service to state that Android system services often require internet connectivity, which may use cellular data, and that some network communications can occur even when a user is not actively using the device.

Google also agreed to take steps to deactivate the “allow background data usage” toggle, which plaintiffs alleged did not stop data transfers despite suggesting that it would.

The lawsuit, filed in 2020, drew in part on a 2018 study by Vanderbilt University professor Douglas Schmidt, who reported that idle Android devices transferred data to Google “at an average of 14 times an hour, 24 hours a day.”

Those transfers, the complaint alleged, “interfere with plaintiffs’ property interests, depriving them of data for which they, not Google, paid.”

DeMarchi initially dismissed the case, siding with Google in its argument that cellular data was not the kind of property that could be misappropriated. But the plaintiffs successfully appealed to the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, where a three-judge panel concluded that cellular data qualifies as personal property subject to conversion because of its definable nature, its potential for exclusive control, and plaintiffs’ legitimate expectations based on their data plans.

“Google’s alleged surreptitious use of the cellular network through plaintiffs’ data plans causes plaintiffs to experience an immediate, discrete loss of a specific sum of valuable cellular data, which is charged against their data plans,” the panel said in a unanimous opinion.

In a separate class-action lawsuit, Google has agreed to pay $68 million to resolve claims that its voice assistant illegally recorded users and then shared their private conversations with advertisers. The proposed settlement received preliminary approval on March 19, and a final approval hearing is scheduled for June 23.