Google, period-tracking app to pay combined $56 million to settle privacy claims

Google has agreed to pay out $48 million and the menstrual tracking app Flo Health will pay $8 million to resolve a class-action lawsuit alleging the app illegally shared people’s health data. 

Google previously reached an agreement with the plaintiffs in July just before the case went to trial but the terms of the settlement were only revealed this week. A jury in August found co-defendant Meta, which took the plaintiffs’ allegations to trial, liable for violating the California Invasion of Privacy Act by collecting the information of Flo app users without their consent. The popular health and wellness app collects intimate details from users, including about their menstrual cycles and sexual activity. 

According to court documents filed this week by the plaintiffs, Google will set up a $48 million fund for Flo app users who entered information about menstruation or pregnancy from November 2016 until the end of February 2019. 

Plaintiff Erica Frasko filed the complaint in early 2021, alleging that Flo used software development kits to allow Google, Meta and the now-defunct analytics company Flurry to intercept users’ communications within the app. Flurry agreed to pay $3.5 in March to settle the claims. Frasko’s complaint was later combined with others to form a class-action lawsuit. 

Both Flo and Google denied the allegations from the plaintiffs despite the settlement agreement. 

“The Settlements allow the parties to avoid the risks and costs of lengthy litigation and the uncertainty of additional pre-trial proceedings, a trial, and/or appeals,” a notice for potential claimants said. 

The litigation has been closely watched by privacy advocates and the tech industry because of its implications on the legality of the ad tracking software used by big tech. Last week, a California federal judge struck down a bid to overturn the verdict in the Flo trial by Meta, which claimed the collection of women’s data from the app was "secondhand" and not covered by the California wiretapping law which Meta was accused of violating.