Google’s Safari Tracking: Here Come the Lawsuits
On the list of things guaranteed to happen from Google getting caught circumventing privacy settings on the iPhone‘s web browser, you can check off “lawsuit.” At least two people are separately suing Google, accusing the search giant of violating federal laws.
First reported by Bloomberg, Illinois resident Matthew Soble filed suit in Delaware against Google, saying the search giant violated his privacy and the privacy of others by implementing a “secret computer code” to bypass settings on Safari, the default (indeed, only) web browser on iOS devices — the iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch. In addition, James Richar is suing Google in Kansas for the same reasons. Soble’s attorney, David Straite, told Mashable that he knew of another filing in New Jersey.
“I know of three, including ours,” Straite said. “And I know there will be others.”
The lawsuits allege that Google knowingly violated federal wiretapping laws and committed fraud by not disclosing what it was doing to the user. Soble’s filing goes on to say Google’s actions go against its settlement with the FTC, which subjected the company to regular privacy audits.
Soble says the court should “permanently restrain” Google from installing cookies on phones or devices when such tracking is in violation of the law. Similary, Richar’s suit asks for a permanent injunction to prevent Google from “intercepting” electronic information from users who are not logged in to google.com.
The lawsuits stem from the discovery last week that Google had bypassed users’ privacy settings on Safari in order to serve people browser cookies from third-party sites that Google operates. While Google says it was only trying to ensure things like”+1″ buttons worked consistently for users, the cookies also enabled Google to target ads to the users based on their behavior. However, Google says the ad tracking was a mistake and has halted the practice.
That’s clearly not enough in the minds of some users, who have turned to the courts to punish Google for what they perceive as “wrongful conduct.” As more people sue Google, the courts are expected to combine all the cases into a class-action lawsuit (both Soble and Richar applied for class-action status) in the coming months.
A Google spokesperson said the company had no comment on the lawsuits.
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