A US judge has rejected Google's attempt to dismiss a lawsuit accusing it of violating the privacy of millions of people by secretly tracking their Internet usage.
US District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers said she "did not find evidence that the users agreed to allow Google to collect information about what they viewed on the Internet because the Alphabet subsidiary did not explicitly tell them that it would do so."
David Boyes, attorney for the plaintiffs in the $5 billion class action lawsuit for users, called the court's decision "an important step in protecting the privacy of millions of Americans."
The plaintiffs said that Google's analytics, cookies, and apps allow the company, which is based in Mountain View, California, to track their activities, even when Google's Chrome browser is set to "incognito" mode, and other browsers to "private" browsing mode.
They added that this allowed Google to learn enough about their friends, hobbies, favorite foods, shopping habits and "potentially embarrassing things" that they searched for online, to become "an unaccountable treasure trove of detailed and comprehensive information".
The plaintiffs argued that there was a market for their data, Rogers said in a 36-paper decision, citing a pilot program from Google that paid users $3 per day for their browsing history.
The lawsuit covers Google users since June 1, 2016, and seeks damages of at least $5,000 per user for violations of federal wiretapping and California privacy laws.
Source : Reuters
