US students: Google read our data without permission



    890 US students filed two class actions against Google for the company scanning their personal data without the permission of the owners. Let me remind you that in 2014 the company updated the rules for using its services, adding a provision on the right to scan users' letters. This scan applies to any user-defined content (including files uploaded to Google Drive).

    In the next few years, Gmail users repeatedly filed lawsuits claiming the corporation’s violation of federal and state laws on wiretapping and privacy protection. The court several times refused to combine the claims into a single class action lawsuit, arguing that there were significant differences in the users' claims. Now, students from 21 states of the USA managed to unite claims.

    It all started in January of this year when four students from UC Berkeley filed a lawsuit against Google. By April 29, 180 more students from other universities joined this initiative. And then the plaintiffs became even more, not only students, but also university graduates began to file claims. The claim in this case is the same - Google corporation scans student accounts without their permission for most of its services, including Apps for Education.

    Now the plaintiffs are waiting for a response from Google. Most likely, the company will try to sever the class action for hundreds of individual lawsuits - in the latter case, it will be easier for lawyers of the company to confront the plaintiffs in court. In particular, it will be difficult for the plaintiffs to find a lawyer for each of the hundreds of cases with the same complaint. Judge Lucy Koh, a judge of the District Court, who is considering the case, also supports the division of lawsuits.

    Students at US universities require a company to be fined $ 10,000 for each lawsuit.

    In April 2014, Google announced the termination of the scanning of the Apps for Education user accounts. But, according to the plaintiffs, up to this point, the company freely analyzed information of a private nature, starting to do so from November 2010 without notice. According to lawyer Chris Hofnegl (Chris Hoofnagle), federal law requires that all users be notified if their personal data (e-mail) is to be scanned. And the user himself must give “explicit consent” to such actions.

    In their lawsuit, students accuse Google of deliberately scanning their emails in Gmail in order to optimize their advertising service, and also that the corporation has misled them, claiming that Google’s email service is private.

    Also popular now: