Google might be forced to pay £2.7billion to customers if a mass legal claim is upheld.
Dubbed “Google You Owe Us”, the class action lawsuit represents some 5.4 million people in England and Wales, who allege Google collected data from their Apple handsets with consent between June 2011 and February 2012.
If successful, the lawsuit could result in £500 compensation for each claimant. That would be the largest payout of its kind to UK consumers.
The “Google You Owe Us” campaign is spearheaded by Richard Lloyd, executive director of the consumer watchdog Which?
According to the lawsuit, Google bypassed default privacy settings on the iPhone to install cookies in the Safari web browser that collected personal data.
This technique has been previously dubbed the “Safari Workaround”.
The campaign claims this was in violation of Section 4 of the Data Protection Act 1998, which concerns consumers’ rights regarding their personal data.
Mr Lloyd said: “I believe that what Google did was quite simply against the law.
“Their actions have affected millions, and we’ll be asking the courts to remedy this major breach of trust.
“Through this action, we will send a strong message to Google and other tech giants in Silicon Valley that we’re not afraid to fight back if our laws are broken.”
Google has previously paid out to settle lawsuits centred around the Safari Workaround.
However, the Californian technology company has said it will fight the allegations made by the “Google You Owe Us” campaign.
“This is not new – we have defended similar cases before. We don’t believe it has any merit and we will contest it,” a spokesperson told Sky News .
In March last year the UK Court of Appeal ruled that consumers did have the right to sue Google over misuse of privacy settings.
The Court said: “These claims raise serious issues which merit a trial. They concern what is alleged to have been the secret and blanket tracking and collation of information, often of an extremely private nature.
“The case relates to the anxiety and distress this intrusion upon autonomy has caused.”
Anyone who meets the below criteria can be included in the Google You Owe Us compensation claim –
- Present in England and Wales between 1 June 2011 and 12 February 2012
- Had an Apple ID at that time
- Owned or was in possession of an iPhone
- Used the Safari browser to access the internet
- Kept the default security settings in the Safari browser
- Did not opt-out of tracking and collation via Google’s “Ads preference Manager”
- Resident in England and Wales on 31 May 2017
If you meet these criteria, you are automatically included in the class action lawsuit.
If the lawsuit is successful and the compensation paid in full, you will be required to provide proof that you qualify under the above criteria to claim via the Google You Owe Us website.
If you were affected but do not wish to be part of the claim, you can opt out here.