Android $135M settlement site live

Google has opened the payment site for a $135 million settlement over claims that Android phones quietly sent data to Google over cellular connections, which matters because cellular data is the part of your phone bill that many people pay for by the gigabyte. The case says those transfers happened even when users were not actively using the phone. (cnet.com) The people covered are broadly defined: living people in the United States who used an Android phone with a cellular data plan to access the internet between November 12, 2017 and the date the settlement gets final approval. California residents are generally carved out because a separate California case already settled. (usatoday.com) This is not a criminal case or a government fine. It is a class action, which means one lawsuit tries to handle the claims of a huge group at once, and CNET says that group is about 100 million United States Android users. (cnet.com) The lawsuit says Android devices transferred information to Google in the background over paid cellular links, including when phones were idle. The core complaint was not just privacy in the abstract, but that users were allegedly made to spend part of their own mobile data allowance on traffic they did not knowingly approve. (classaction.org) Google agreed to settle, but it did not admit wrongdoing. That is common in large civil settlements, where a company pays to end years of litigation without conceding that the allegations were true. (cnet.com) The court has not given final approval yet. Multiple reports say the final approval hearing is scheduled for June 23, 2026, and people who want to object to the deal or exclude themselves generally have until May 29, 2026. (cnet.com) (androidheadlines.com) The payout headline is “up to $100,” but that number is a ceiling, not a promise. Settlement trackers say the money will be split on a pro rata basis after legal fees, administration costs, and other court-approved payments come out of the fund, so the actual amount per person could be much lower if enough people participate. (mlive.com) (claimdepot.com) The mechanics are unusually simple because many users do not need to prove every old phone they owned. Several settlement notices say eligible people are being contacted with a Notice ID and Confirmation Code, and the main step is often choosing how to get paid through options like PayPal, Venmo, Zelle, bank transfer, or a virtual prepaid card. (androidheadlines.com) (claimdepot.com) The case itself has been running for years in federal court in Northern California under Taylor v. Google, and related Android data suits have been consolidated around the same basic claim that background transfers used customers’ paid data. Court records show the litigation dates back to 2020, which is why the settlement is arriving long after the alleged conduct began in 2017. (classaction.org) (courtlistener.com) What makes this case easy to understand is that it turns an invisible phone setting into a billable expense. If your carrier treats data like a prepaid tank of gas, the lawsuit says Android was using some of that fuel in the background while the car was parked. (classaction.org) That is why the live claims site matters more than the dollar figure alone. It turns a technical argument about background network traffic into a direct question millions of people can answer for themselves: did my phone use my paid connection for someone else’s data transfers, and am I owed part of the bill back. (cnet.com)