Google is likely to face a class action lawsuit claiming that the tech giant has collected personal data from user’s devices without their consent even after they have disabled tracking features. As per the reports, the possible trial may begin in August. This comes after Chief Judge Richard Seeborg, a federal court in San Francisco, rejected the company’s request to dismiss the case saying that the company’s disclosures about its Web and App Activity settings were not sufficient.
Citing internal communications that indicated Google purposefully left its tracking disclosures ambiguous out of concern that the truth would alarm users, the judge said. The users could have legitimately found Google’s actions to be extremely offensive, he added.
Google was charged with breaking a California law that prohibits unauthorized fraudulent computer access in the initial lawsuit, which was filed in July 2020. Despite users choosing to turn off tracking features on their devices, it alleges that the company has illegally intercepted and stored their private browsing histories. Both Android and non-Android mobile device users are impacted by the class action.
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According to Judge Seeborg, Google employees were aware of the problem with the data collection process and some of them voiced their concerns within the company. Additionally, he referenced internal communications that implied Google purposefully omitted information about the distinction between data collected inside and outside of Google accounts in order to avoid alarming users.
Google claims that privacy controls have been incorporated into its services and has classified the allegations as an effort to misrepresent the functionality of its products. “We will continue to make our case in court against these patently false claims,” said Google.
Previously, the company has seen multiple lawsuits related to tracking users’ data without consent. A similar lawsuit was filed stating that Google of tracking Chrome browser users who had opted not to synchronize their browsing data with their Google accounts.