Google Faces Privacy Class Action over Mobile Tracking
A federal judge denied Google's motion to dismiss a privacy lawsuit alleging unauthorized data collection despite users disabling tracking. The case, involving alleged violations of California law, moves to trial, raising concerns over transparency, user consent, and corporate practices.
A federal judge has denied Google’s request to dismiss a privacy class action alleging the company collected personal data from mobile devices even after users disabled tracking settings. The decision paves the way for a potential jury trial on August 18.
The lawsuit claims that Google, despite users turning off the Web and App Activity tracking feature, continued to intercept and store personal browsing data from Android and non-Android devices. Plaintiffs accuse the company of violating California’s law against unauthorized and fraudulent computer access by saving their data without consent.
Chief Judge Richard Seeborg of the federal court in San Francisco rejected Google’s defense that users were adequately informed about the tracking practices caused harm. Still, the court found these arguments insufficient to dismiss the case.
Google must face mobile phone privacy class action, possible trial #Google https://t.co/El1tN2tfPS
— Express Technology (@ExpressTechie) January 9, 2025
In a 20-page ruling, Seeborg noted that reasonable users might view Google’s action as “highly offensive”. The judge referenced internal communications suggesting the company was intentionally vague in disguising between data collected within Google accounts and outside of them. According to NDTV news, employees express concerns about being transparent about the practices of could alarm users.
Seeborg added that some internal discussions could be interpreted as efforts to improve Google’s products rather than an attempt to deceive users. However, the court concluded that determining which interpretation is accurate would require a trial. Whether Google or plaintiffs' interpretation prevails is a triable issue of fact," Seeborg wrote.
Google defended its practices, stating on 10th Jan 2025: "Privacy controls have long been built into our service and the allegations here are a deliberate attempt to mischaracterize the way our products work. We will continue to make our case in court against these patently false claims."
Plaintiffs’ lawyers have not yet commented.
This legal battle is part of a series of privacy-related lawsuits faced by Google. Last August, a federal appeals court revived a similar lawsuit accusing the company of tracking Chrome browser users who opted out of synchronization with their Google accounts.
In another case, Google agreed to pay over $ 5 billion and delete billions of data records to settle allegations of tracking users in “Incognito” mode on Chrome. That lawsuit also highlighted privacy concerns stemming from ambiguous disclosures and was valued as one of the largest data privacy concerns settlements in history.
The current case, Rodriguez et al v Google LLC, was filed in July 2020. It represents ongoing scrutiny of Google’s data collection practices and raises significant questions about users' consent and corporate transparency.
The trial will be held in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California under case number 20-04688.