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Google Sued Over Inconsistent Buzz Privacy Settlement Notice
By Matt O’Donnell
UPDATE: Google won dismissal of this class action lawsuit on Nov. 15, 2013, after asking that it be transferred to another court. Plaintiffs will be able to refile the case in the Northern District of California.
The Google Buzz privacy settlement was finalized over a year ago, but a new class action lawsuit is bringing it back into the spotlight.
Three Google Buzz users sued Google Inc. this week claiming inconsistencies between the settlement agreement and the class notice put them and more than 20,500 other Class Members in a position where they either couldn’t opt out if they wanted to, or would have opted out if they had known about the inconsistencies.
According to the class action lawsuit:
“The Google Buzz settlement agreement provided that the timeliness of opt-out requests would be determined by the date on which such requests are postmarked, whereas the Google Buzz class notice provided that such timeliness would be determined by the date on which such requests are received,” according to the class action lawsuit.”
In addition, the settlement agreement did not require Class Members to provide reasons for opting out or proof that the Class Member had used Gmail during the class period. The class notice, on the other hand, did.
And finally, the Google Buzz settlement agreement also required opt-out requests to be signed under oath, while the class notice only required a signature, according to the class action lawsuit.
The class action lawsuit is seeking to represent three distinct subclasses: one containing an estimated 10,000 or more Class Members who failed to opt out of the Google Buzz privacy settlement as a result of following one of the inconsistent requirements; one containing more than 10,000 Google Buzz users who would have opted out had they known the inconsistencies; and one containing 500 or more users whose opt-out request were accepted despite the inconsistencies.
It is seeking monetary damages, punitive damages and more.
The Google Buzz Settlement Class Action Lawsuit case is Rudgayzer v. Google Inc., Case No. 13-cv-00120, U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York.
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