Google failed to convince a federal judge to dismiss a privacy-type lawsuit claiming it collected personal data from people’s phones with people closing buttons to stop tracking, paving the way for a possible August trial.
Richard Seeborg, chief judge of the San Francisco federal court, rejected the argument that search engine companies fully disclose how their network and application activity settings work, and users agree to tracking.
Google also believes that its basic record keeping “will not hurt anyone”.
Users of Android and non-Android mobile devices accuse Google of infringing on its privacy by blocking and preserving unconsensual personal browsing history and violating California laws to prevent unauthorized fraudulent computer access.
In Tuesday’s 20-page decision, Seeborg said reasonable users could view Google’s behavior as “highly offensive” because despite the concerns of several employees, the company collected data and knew its disclosure was ambiguous. of.
He enumerated internal communications, suggesting that Google is an alphabetical unit, deliberately vaguely distinguishing data collected inside and outside of Google’s account, as users may find the truth “shocking”.
On the other hand, Seeborg said Google employees may just be proposing ways to improve the mountain views of the California-based company’s products and services.
“It is a matter of fact that both Google and plaintiff’s explanation prevails.”
“Our service has established long-standing privacy controls, and the allegations here are intentional misunderstandings on how our products work. We will continue to file these obvious false claims in court,” Google said in a statement on Wednesday. litigation.”
The plaintiff’s attorney did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The jury is scheduled to take place on August 18. The lawsuit began in July 2020.
Last August, the federal appeals court in San Francisco accused Google of tracking Chrome users after opting not to sync its browser with Google accounts.
Four months ago, Google agreed to destroy billions of data records to resolve a lawsuit claiming it tracks people who people think they are browsing privately, including chrome browsers in “invisible” mode.
In this case, the law firm representing the plaintiffs was worth more than US$5 billion (approximately Rs 429,37 crore) to the settlement. In the current case, the same company represents the plaintiff.
The case was Rodriguez et al., 20-04688, of the U.S. District Court for Northern District of California.
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