Wednesday, July 23, 2014

Google has to face a U.S. lawsuit over its user data policies


Google has to face a U.S. lawsuit over its user data policies


A California court has allowed a privacy class action suit against Google to continue, though only in part. After evaluating each claim of each sub-class in the suit, Magistrate Judge Paul S. Grewal has allowed two claims of the “Android Application Disclosure Subclass,” which includes all persons and entities in the U.S. that acquired an Android-powered device between August 19, 2004 and the present, and downloaded at least one Android application through the Android Market or Google Play.


On March 1, 2012, Google introduced a single, unified policy that allows the company to comingle user data across accounts and disclose it to third-parties for advertising purposes. This move triggered the class action lawsuit in March, 2012 in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, San Jose division, which argued that by switching to the less-restrictive privacy policy without user consent, Google violated both its prior policies and consumers’ privacy rights, according to court records.


Users also called this a violation of privacy, saying Google made the changes to how their data was used without their consent and without a way to opt out. They said Google’s actions amounted to a reaction to competitors like Facebook and other social media companies “where all of a consumer’s personal information is available in one site.” This violation of privacy, users said, exposes names, email addresses, geographic locations, and increases the possibility of harassment or identity theft by third parties.


The suit was filed over two years ago and since then the court twice dismissed the plaintiffs’ claims. Google moved for a third dismissal. The claims allowed by the judge includes a breach of contract claim that Google breached terms of the contract by disclosing user data to third parties following every download or purchase of an app, resulting in damages in the form of resource consumption. The second claim is under California’s Unfair Competition Law. Read more about the story here.


The post Google has to face a U.S. lawsuit over its user data policies appeared first on Uberly.






via Uberly http://ift.tt/UtlLcv

No comments: