14 DAY TRIAL // Consumer group “Google You Owe Us” has started a class action against search giant Google, claiming the company illegally harvested personal information from more than five million iPhone users to target them with more relevant ads.
The alleged misuse of privacy settings took place as part of saga known as “Safari Workaround,” with Google accused of turning to a method to bypass Safari browser settings to enable tracking cookies in order to target iPhone users with advertising.
The group estimates that approximately 5.4 million consumers could be owned at least several hundreds of pounds each in compensation, and it’s being estimated that Google would, in the end, have to agree to a bill of around 2.7 billion pounds ($3.3 billion).
Richard Lloyd, former Which? executive director and Government adviser, as well as one of the people leading the anti-Google class action, says Google violated Section 4 of the Data Protection Act 1998 and customers can ask for compensation according to Section 13 of the same act.
Similar class action in 2015
Lloyd says that if the class action status is approved, customers would be allowed to fill in an online form, provide their details, and become eligible for a fixed compensation as part of the lawsuit.
“I believe that what Google did was quite simply against the law. Their actions have affected millions, and we’ll be asking the courts to remedy this major breach of trust. Through this action, we will send a strong message to Google and other tech giants in Silicon Valley that we’re not afraid to fight back if our laws are broken,” he said.
“I want to spread the word about our claim. Google owes all of those affected fairness, trust and money. By joining together, we can show Google that they can’t get away with taking our data without our consent, and that no matter how large and powerful they are, nobody is above the law.”
While Google hasn’t issued a statement on this lawsuit, this isn’t the first time the company has been sued over the Safari Workaround. Back in March 2015, the UK Court of Appeal decided that consumers had the right to start a class action against the search giant for harvesting their data without authorization.
Google said at that time it was “disappointed with the court’s decision,” and there’s a good chance this new class action would get the go-ahead as well.