Google Can't Shake Privacy Suit Over App Data

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Google Can't Shake Privacy Suit Over App Data

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Siding against Google, a federal judge on Thursday rejected the company's request for judgment in its favor in a privacy battle over the collection of analytics data from smartphone users.

The ruling, issued by U.S. District Court Judge Richard Seeborg in the Northern District of California, comes in a dispute over Google Analytics for Firebase -- a tool that can collect data about smartphone users' app usage.

Anibal Rodriguez and other consumers alleged in a 2020 class-action complaint that Google “intentionally created an illusion of user control” through its “Web & App Activity” settings, which users can toggle off if they don't want to save searches and activity in their Google account.

Rodriguez and the others alleged that even when users turn off the setting, Google uses its Firebase code “to collect users’ communications made via the apps on users’ devices."

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Google argued that it was entitled to summary judgment -- meaning a verdict in its favor, based on evidence developed in preparation for trial.

Among other arguments, the company said it accurately described its practices in its privacy policy and the Web and App Activity setting. Google also described the analytics data as “non-personal,” and said its privacy policies disclosed that the company could use “non-personal information for basic record-keeping.”

Google added that no reasonable smartphone user would have expected the Web & App Activity setting to “disable the entire data flow from the app to Google.”

“Nobody who uses mobile apps reasonably believes that they can grind the mobile ads ecosystem to a halt by flipping a single button (or any other way),” Google wrote in a motion for summary judgment.

Seeborg rejected that argument, writing that Google's disclosures about the Web and App Activity setting were ambiguous.

Seeborg added that even pseudonymous information can be considered personal information in California, noting that the state's privacy statute defines personal information as data that could be linked to a consumer, household, IP address or other unique identifier.

A Google spokesperson called the allegations "a deliberate attempt to mischaracterize the way our products work," adding that the company "will continue to make our case in court against these patently false claims." 

The judge hasn't yet scheduled a date for trial.

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January 8, 2025 at 04:08PM