The Guardian writes there are about 10 million British Apple device owners that could have been impacted by Google’s bypass of Safari’s privacy settings. It first began with ten iPhone users initiating the legal proceedings but several days later the number is close to 100 and from the looks of it the number of complaints isn’t going to level out just now.
“We’ve had more than 70 people come forward to join this action. We are seeking further details in respect of these individuals’ cases and, where appropriate, will be making further claims for them against Google” Dan Tench, lawyer in charge of the case against Google told The Guardian.
The British law firm Olswang was hired by the iPhone users to represent them in the Safari privacy breach lawsuit against Google. Lawyers have already requested Google to reveal the final purpose of the data obtained without users’ knowledge as well as which personal data has been collected. The firm says its clients are suing Google for violating the Data Protection Act of 1998 as well as privacy breach, computer misuse and tresspass.
“This is the first time Google has been threatened with a group claim over privacy in the UK” Dan Tench explained. “It is particularly concerning how Google circumvented security settings to snoop on its users. One of the things about Google is that it is to ubiquitous in our lives and if that’s its approach then it’s quite concerning” the lawyer added.
A Facebook group called Safari Users Against Google’s Secret Tracking says “Google deliberately undermined protections on the Safari browser so that they could track users’ internet usage and to provide personally tailored advertising based on the sites previously visited”.
In the United States, the Federal Trade Commission fined Google $22.5 million for the same thing. At that time, Google’s statement denied collecting any personal information.
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