California Judge Rejects Lawsuit Claiming Google Privacy Violations

Article

Google Inc. users were blocked from suing over alleged privacy violations by a judge who said they failed to show any of their information had been disclosed.

It was the fourth time U.S. Magistrate Judge Paul Grewal rejected the case. The complaint, filed and revised multiple times in San Jose, California, focused on an alleged plan to eliminate barriers between distinct Google services, resulting in the sharing of user data across the company’s platforms.

The lawsuit failed to identify any harm that could be clearly traced to Google’s actions, “especially as plaintiffs claim injury without alleging any actual disclosure to third parties from plaintiffs’ own devices,” Grewal wrote in Wednesday’s decision.

Previously, Grewal ruled that for the case to go forward, the plaintiffs had to demonstrate how Mountain View, California- based Google’s co-mingling of data deprived them of the economic value of their information.

In the most recent complaint, plaintiffs focused on claims that Google violated its own privacy policy by disclosing to third parties the names, e-mail addresses and account location of Android users.

Diane Zilka, a lawyer for the plaintiffs, didn’t immediately respond to phone and e-mail messages after regular business hours seeking comment on the ruling.

The case is In Re Google Inc. Privacy Policy Litigation, 12-01382, U.S. District Court, Northern District of California (San Jose).