Lawsuit Against Google for Violating Consumer Privacy Continues Despite Attempts to Settle

Google’s attempt to have a lawsuit dismissed, which accuses the company of invading the privacy of numerous individuals by covertly monitoring their internet activity, was denied by a judge in the United States.

U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers said Monday that she did not find that users gave Google permission to collect data about what they viewed online because the Alphabet unit never specifically said it would.

David Boies, an attorney for the plaintiffs in the proposed $5 billion class action, called the decision “an important step to protect the privacy of millions of Americans.”

The plaintiffs alleged that Google’s analytics, cookies and applications allow the Mountain View, Calif.-based company to track their activities even when they set Google’s Chrome browser to “incognito” mode and other browsers to “private” browsing mode.

They said this allowed Google to learn enough about their friends, hobbies, favorite foods, shopping habits and “potentially embarrassing things” they searched for online that it became “an unfathomable storehouse of information so detailed and vast that it wouldn’t be George Orwell never could have imagined it.”

In his 36-page decision, Rogers said the plaintiffs showed there was a market for their data, citing Google’s pilot program that paid users $3 a day for their browsing history.

The Oakland, Calif.-based judge also cited several Google statements, including its privacy policies, that suggest limits on data collection.

“Taken as a whole, there is a triable issue as to whether these writs created an enforceable promise that Google would not collect users’ information while they were browsing privately,” Rogers wrote.

Google spokesman Jose Castaneda said the company vehemently denied the plaintiffs’ claims and was vigorously defending itself against them.

“Chrome’s incognito mode allows you to browse the Internet without your activity being recorded on your browser or device,” he said. “As we make clear every time you open a new incognito tab, websites may be able to collect information about your browsing activity during the session.”

The lawsuit affects Google users from June 1, 2016. It seeks at least $5,000 in damages per user for violating federal wiretapping and California privacy laws.

The case is Brown et al v. Google LLC et al, US District Court, Northern District of California, No. 20-03664.