Google has failed to persuade a federal judge to dismiss a privacy class action alleging that it collected personal data from people’s cell phones after they turned off a button to stop tracking, setting the stage for a potential trial in August.
Chief Judge Richard Seaborg of the federal court in San Francisco rejected arguments that the search engine company adequately disclosed how its web and app activity settings worked, and that users consented to the tracking.
Google also said that basic record keeping “never hurt anyone.”
Users of Android and non-Android mobile devices accused Google of violating their privacy and violating California law against fraudulent unauthorized access to computers by intercepting and saving their personal browsing histories without consent.
In a 20-page decision on Tuesday, Seaborg said reasonable users could view Google’s behavior as “deeply offensive,” because the company collected the data despite raising concerns from many employees and knowing that its disclosures were vague.
He cited internal communications suggesting that Google, a unit of Alphabet, was intentionally vague in distinguishing between data collected inside and outside Google accounts because users might find the truth “troubling.”
On the other hand, Seaborg said Google employees may have simply been suggesting ways to improve the Mountain View, California-based company’s products and services.
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“Whether Google’s or the plaintiffs’ interpretation prevails is a triable question of fact,” he wrote.
Google said in a statement on Wednesday: “Privacy controls have long been built into our service, and the allegations here are a deliberate attempt to distort how our products work. We will continue to take our case in court against these patently false claims.”
Lawyers for the plaintiffs did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
A jury trial is scheduled for August 18. The lawsuit began in July 2020.
Last August, the Federal Court of Appeals in San Francisco revived a lawsuit accusing Google of tracking Chrome browser users after they chose not to sync their browsers with their Google accounts.
Four months ago, Google agreed to destroy billions of data records to settle a lawsuit alleging that it tracked people they thought were browsing privately, including Chrome browsers that were set to “incognito” mode.
The law firms representing the plaintiffs in this case estimated that settlement at more than $5 billion. The same firms represent the plaintiffs in the current case.
The case is Rodriguez et al v Google LLC, U.S. District Court, Northern District of California, No. 20-04688.
-Prepared by Jonathan Stempel in New York; Edited by Rod Nickel
