£1 Billion Data Collection Lawsuit against Google

[zramsey11]

Primarily from Neowin, more from The Verge:

 

It is no surprise that Google is using collected information from its users for AdSense, but now they are facing a hefty class action lawsuit

Quote

"on behalf of over 5.4 million people in Britain who may have been unlawfully snooped on by Google" (Neowin). 

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Here's the gist of it:

• Originated from the "Google You Owe Us Campaign" (Neowin)

• Quote

  • "[Google] bypassed default privacy settings on user's iPhones in order to extract user's data" (Neowin)

• How it worked: Essentially, interacting with Google ads in safari allowed otherwise blocked third-party cookies to be installed (Via Neowin)
• In 2012, Google payed $22.5 million fine for the same safari breach (Verge) 

• Quote

  "If the legal action is successful then affected users could receive up to £200 in compensation each; which would cost Google over £1 billion" (Neowin)

-------------------------------------------

A Google spokesperson attested,

Quote

"This is not new - we have defended similar cases before. We don't believe it has any merit and we will contest it"

 

Frank I don't really mind what Google is doing because it is a "fair" trade for all of their free products, but I can definitely see where these people are coming from. Privacy is a huge must for most people and I hope they get the justice they want. Although, we've seen Google settle for dimes on the dollar before and that could very well happen again; let's see how this one goes.

[TidaLWaveZ]

So in over 5 years Safari was never fixed to stop the vulnerability?

[Bananasplit_00]

I'm guessing this will end in nothing 

[zramsey11]

3 minutes ago, TidaLWaveZ said:

So in over 5 years Safari was never fixed to stop the vulnerability?

I did a little more research and it looks like there is an option in a Safari update, which is currently in Beta, that "will have a new tool for blocking third-party ad trackers, aggressively identifying and blocking any cookies used to track users across the web." Via The Verge

[TidaLWaveZ]

6 minutes ago, zramsey11 said:

I did a little more research and it looks like there is an option in a Safari update, which is currently in Beta, that "will have a new tool for blocking third-party ad trackers, aggressively identifying and blocking any cookies used to track users across the web." Via The Verge

Nope, don't trust em. Don't trust anybody.

[TheCherryKing]

Nice!

[Dissitesuxba11s]

One thing that I don't understand about these types of lawsuits is where will that money go if the accusing party wins? It's saying that they represent 5.4 million people in Britain, but will they see the effects (ex. infrastructure repair), or even get a part of the money earned? 

Edited November 30, 2017 by Dissitesuxba11s
Disregard, answered in OP's post

[zramsey11]

4 minutes ago, Dissitesuxba11s said:

One thing that I don't understand about these types of lawsuits is where will that money go if the accusing party wins? It's saying that they represent 5.4 million people in Britain, but will they see the effects (ex. infrastructure repair), or even get a part of the money earned? 

Well there is this,

30 minutes ago, zramsey11 said:

"If the legal action is successful then affected users could receive up to £200 in compensation each; which would cost Google over £1 billion" (Neowin)

Though I don't exactly know how they would get this money to the people affected.

[Matu20]

The trial will last many many years and Google will end up settling for cents on the dollar, as usual.

[Dissitesuxba11s]

Just now, zramsey11 said:

Well there is this,

Though I don't exactly know how they would get this money to the people affected.

Reading is hard...

 

Note to self: Read the whole post before commenting.

[mr moose]

2 hours ago, zramsey11 said:

Well there is this,

Though I don't exactly know how they would get this money to the people affected.

In a class action, the people who are represented have to sign up to be a party to it.  So if they have 5.4 Million people signed up in the class action then they simply distribute the money to them.  If you are not signed up to the class action then you don't get anything.    The standing works in reverse to, if you fail and the class action has to pay fees then the cost of the fees are spread amongst everyone signed up.  EDIT: this includes legal fees.

[W-L]

@zramsey11 Please don't forget to include a quote related to the article at hand, as of currently it has been moved to General Discussion until updated. 

 

[zramsey11]

18 hours ago, W-L said:

@zramsey11 Please don't forget to include a quote related to the article at hand, as of currently it has been moved to General Discussion until updated. 

 

Fixed

[FPSwithaWacomTablet]

Right, the NOBUS principle...

[PlayStation 2]

So your data being sold in an undisclosed manner is fine to you as a trade off? Why?

[handymanshandle]

11 minutes ago, Dan Castellaneta said:

So your data being sold in an undisclosed manner is fine to you as a trade off? Why?

Because Google, of course.