Google's Vulnerability Reward Programs, created to reward researchers for protecting users by telling Google about the security bugs they find, paid out over $6.5 million in rewards in 2019.

Axar.az reports citing CDR Info that at the same time Google's researchers decided to donate an all-time-high of $500,000 to charity this year.

Since 2010, Google has expanded its VRPs to cover additional Google product areas, including Chrome, Android, and most recently Abuse. The company has also expanded to cover popular third-party apps on Google Play, helping identify and disclose vulnerabilities to impacted app developers. Since then Google says it has paid out more than $21 million in rewards.

In 2019, Chrome’s VRP increased its reward payouts by tripling the maximum baseline reward amount from $5,000 to $15,000 and doubling the maximum reward amount for high-quality reports from $15,000 to $30,000. The additional bonus given to bugs found by fuzzers running under the Chrome Fuzzer Program is also doubling to $1,000.