Google will not escape another trial for unauthorized data collection: a federal judge in California has allowed a class-action lawsuit in which the search giant is accused of collecting data through users’ smartphones even when the data collection switch was turned off in the Google account settings between. Both Android and non-Android device owners accused Google as early as 2020 of violating their privacy and California law by collecting personal browsing history without consent.
The chief judge of the federal court in San Francisco did not find sufficient the company’s argument that it gave users enough information about the operation of the “internet and app activities” privacy setting, and that users actually consented to the data collection, and that basic tracking “does not harm no one”.
When said switch is activated, the account saves activity on Google websites and apps (including related data such as location data) to provide faster searches, better recommendations and more personalized experiences in Maps, Search and other Google in services.
2025: how much money is the home office worth to you?
Here are our 2025 forecasts for the IT labor market.
According to the 20-page decision published on Tuesday, more conscious users may indeed find Google’s ambiguous practices offensive, and, based on internal documents, several Google employees have expressed concerns about data collection inside and outside of Google accounts, which users may find “alarming.” . The case could go to jury trial in August.
Last August, a federal appeals court reinstated a previously dismissed case in which a group of users accused Google of collecting data without their consent through the Chrome browser, despite not allowing their browser activity to sync with their Google Accounts. The company defended itself by saying that the users also agreed to the data collection when they accepted the data protection policy.
The company eventually had to destroy “billions of data points” related to questionably collected browsing history, updated its data collection statement, and made a setting that blocks third-party cookies within Chrome the default. In the current case, the plaintiffs are represented by the same law firms as then.
Source: www.hwsw.hu
