Loading story…
A court has ordered Google to pay $425 million in a class action lawsuit for misleading users about its 'Web & App Activity' privacy setting. Despite users disabling data collection, Google continued to gather app usage data via Firebase, affecting 98 million users. Google plans to appeal the decision, maintaining that its privacy tools are transparent and effective.
Mallory correlates global threat intelligence with your attack surface — know if you’re exposed before adversaries strike.
1 event from the most recent confirmed update back to the earliest known activity.
Initial story creation
2 references tracked. Mallory keeps watching after this page renders.
Map indicators from this story to your assets and identify affected systems in minutes.
Every observed campaign, victim, and pivot linked to actors named in this story.
Malware, exploits, and IOCs connected to the activity described here.
YARA, Sigma, and Snort rules deployed to your SIEM as soon as they’re published.
Get matching new stories delivered to your team as they break — not the next morning.
Ask questions about this story and take action on the answers.
Other stories Mallory is tracking that overlap on entities, sources, or topic labels.
Google agreed to a preliminary **$135 million** class action settlement in *Taylor v. Google LLC* over allegations that Android devices transmitted cellular data to Google without users’ consent, including while phones were idle and apps were closed. The proposed settlement covers roughly **100 million U.S. Android users** who used an Android device with a cellular data plan from **Nov. 12, 2017** until final approval, though Google denied wrongdoing and said it settled to avoid further litigation. Eligible users can file claims for payments that may reach **up to $100**, with final amounts depending on participation levels and deductions for fees and costs. As part of the agreement, Google will revise Google Play terms to better disclose passive data transfers, obtain user consent during device setup, and stop collecting data entirely when the **"allow background data usage"** setting is turned off. A final approval hearing is scheduled for **June 23**, and payments would be issued only after court approval and any appeals are resolved.
Jun 29, 2026
A new class-action lawsuit filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California alleges **Meta** misled WhatsApp users by marketing “unbreakable” end-to-end encryption while allegedly retaining and analyzing message content and enabling employee access via internal tools. The complaint—brought by plaintiffs from multiple countries and seeking global class certification—cites unnamed whistleblowers but reportedly provides no technical proof (e.g., logs or code) to substantiate claims that Meta can decrypt or read message contents; Meta spokesperson Andy Stone denied the allegations as “categorically false,” reiterating WhatsApp’s use of the **Signal Protocol** for end-to-end encryption. Separately, **Google** agreed to pay **$68 million** to settle a class-action lawsuit alleging **Google Assistant** unlawfully recorded users’ private conversations when inadvertently triggered (e.g., via “Hey Google” misfires) and shared recordings with third parties for advertising-related purposes. The preliminary settlement, also filed in Northern California federal court, still requires judicial approval and applies to purchasers of Google devices dating back to May 2016; Google reportedly settled without admitting wrongdoing. Together, the cases underscore ongoing legal and regulatory exposure tied to consumer privacy representations, data handling, and the gap between product claims and alleged internal access/collection practices.
Jun 29, 2026
Google has initiated legal action against the operators of Lighthouse, a large-scale Phishing-as-a-Service (PhaaS) platform, by filing a lawsuit in the Southern District of New York. The complaint alleges that Lighthouse provided ready-made phishing kits impersonating major brands such as E-ZPass, USPS, and Google itself, using Google’s trademarks to create convincing sign-in screens. These kits were rented to cybercriminals globally, facilitating the theft of credentials and credit card data from millions of users. Google’s lawsuit, titled Google LLC v. Does 1–25, No. 1:25-cv-09421, represents a strategic move to use civil litigation as a complement to criminal investigations, aiming for injunctive relief and discovery even when monetary damages may be unlikely. The legal action is structured similarly to a hacking indictment and racketeering case, signaling a proactive approach by Google to disrupt cybercrime infrastructure and deter future phishing operations targeting its users and brand.
Jun 29, 2026