A federal court in the US has ordered Google to pay $425 million (£316.3 million) for violating users' privacy by gathering data from millions of people even after they disabled a tracking option in their Google accounts.

This ruling follows a lawsuit filed by a group of users who claimed that Google accessed their mobile devices to collect, retain, and utilize their data, going against the privacy commitments stated in its Web & App Activity settings.

The plaintiffs were initially seeking damages exceeding $31 billion.

The jury concluded that the tech giant was liable for two out of three claims of privacy infringements but determined that the company did not act with malicious intent.

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The class action lawsuit, which encompasses approximately 98 million Google users and 174 million devices, was initiated in July 2020.

Google maintains that when users disable Web & App Activity in their accounts, companies utilizing Google Analytics may still gather data about their interaction with sites and apps; however, this data does not pinpoint individual users and adheres to their privacy preferences.

In another development this week, shares in Google's parent company Alphabet surged by over nine percent following a US federal judge's decision that it would not need to divest its Chrome web browser but must provide information to its competitors.

The measures ordered by District Judge Amit Mehta were the result of a lengthy legal battle concerning Google's supremacy in online search.

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The case focused on Google's role as the default search engine across a variety of its products, including Android and Chrome, as well as devices made by other companies like Apple.

The US Department of Justice had sought to compel Google to sell Chrome; however, Tuesday's ruling allows the tech giant to retain it while prohibiting exclusive contracts and mandating that it share search data with competitors.