Google failed to convince a federal judge in San Francisco to dismiss a class-action lawsuit that accused the company of violating the plaintiffs’ privacy by continuing to collect data even after users had opted out, thereby violating a California data access law.
Google’s “ambiguous” behavior
Users of both Android and non-Android smartphones complained that Google was intercepting and recording their personal browsing history without their consent. Google, for its part, claimed that its app activity tracking settings were sufficiently explicit and that the recordings did “no harm to anyone.” The judge was not convinced.
In his decision, the judge found that Google’s behavior could be perceived as “extremely offensive” by reasonable users. He also cited internal communications showing that Google knew his explanations were ambiguous.
The search engine acknowledged the judge's decision and said that "the allegations herein are a deliberate attempt to misrepresent how our products work." The company also reiterated that "privacy controls have long been built into our services." Despite everything, the procedure continues, with a jury trial on the horizon on August 18.
If Google wants to avoid a trial, an amicable agreement is still possible, but lawyers believe that the check may be hard to sign: we are talking about more than 5 billion dollars.
Source: Reuters
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