The lawsuit was filed by a group called Google You Owe Us, led by Richard Lloyd, former director of the Which company. They accused Google in 2011. From August to February 2012, the privacy settings of the Apple Safari browser were bypassed, user information was collected, and they were classified for advertiser use.
At a two-day hearing held on Monday, the group's lawyers stated that Google collected information including race, physical and mental health, political inclination, gender, social class, finances, shopping habits and geographic data.
Lloyd's attorney, Hugh Tomlinson, said that the data was secretly tracked and collected. This activity was called Safari Workaround and was exposed by a Ph.D. researcher back in 2012.
Tomlinson also stated that Google had paid US$39.5 million to settle claims related to this in the United States. In 2012, Google was fined US$22.5 million by the Federal Trade Commission and forced to pay US$17 million to 37 U.S. states.
Before the hearing, Lloyd said: 'I think that everything Google has done is illegal. Their behavior affects millions of people in England and Wales. We will ask the judge to ensure that they are in our courtroom. Responsibility. '
The group hopes to win at least 1 billion pounds (about 8.6 billion yuan) in compensation for about 4.4 million iPhone users. Court documents show that the group may seek up to 3.2 billion pounds (about 27.4 billion yuan) in compensation, which means If the claim is successful, each iPhone user participating in the lawsuit can receive a compensation of US$750 (4780.8 yuan).
Google believes that such class actions are not appropriate and should not continue.
The company’s lawyers stated that there was no indication that any information obtained by Safari Workaround was leaked to third parties. They also stated that it is impossible to determine which of the specific people may be affected, so this claim has no chance of success.
Anthony White, Google's lawyer, stated that the purpose of Lloyd’s claim was to “disclose liability and punish Google, not to claim compensation for all affected people.
Tom Price, director of Google’s UK communications, stated: “The privacy and security of our users is extremely important to us. This case happened more than six years ago and we had already solved it. We believe that this The case has no basis and should be rejected. We have submitted evidence in support of this point of view and wish to explain our case to the court. '