A California judge has rejected Google's request to dismiss a class action lawsuit filed in 2020 alleging that it tracked users' web activity even after they opted out of being tracked. There is a Web & App Activity setting on every Google account that gives users the option to opt out of being tracked. However, Google was found to still be doing so without their consent on smartphone users.
This violates California privacy laws where the lawsuit was filed. The judge said Google was still collecting user data even after receiving negative feedback from employees. Google, on the other hand, said the data collection did not negatively impact anyone because it was just a record-keeping activity.
The case will now go to trial in August with the plaintiff seeking $5 billion in damages. This is not the first case where Google was found to be tracking web activity without permission. In 2020, they agreed to delete billions of web activity data from incognito tabs in Chrome.
A California judge has rejected Google's request to dismiss a class action lawsuit filed in 2020 alleging that it tracked users' web activity even after they opted out of being tracked. There is a Web & App Activity setting on every Google account that gives users the option to opt out of being tracked. However, Google was found to still be doing so without their consent on smartphone users.
This violates California privacy laws where the lawsuit was filed. The judge said Google was still collecting user data even after receiving negative feedback from employees. Google, on the other hand, said the data collection did not negatively impact anyone because it was just a record-keeping activity.
The case will now go to trial in August with the plaintiff seeking $5 billion in damages. This is not the first case where Google was found to be tracking web activity without permission. In 2020, they agreed to delete billions of web activity data from incognito tabs in Chrome.