Google Must Face Location Tracking Class Action, Users Say

UPDATE: On Aug. 31, 2020, Google has asked a federal judge in California to throw out a proposed class action lawsuit that accuses the company of violating privacy law through its use of tracking and storing users’ location information.

Android and iPhone owners are asking the court to allow a class action lawsuit to continue which alleges that Google secretly tracks their location, even though they turn off the setting.

The motion states that Google is in violation of the California Invasion of Privacy Act (CIPA), the right of privacy, and common law tort of Intrusion Upon Seclusion in that the search company spies on its users in an unauthorized and deceitful manner.

The opposition to the motion to dismiss alleges that “Plaintiffs’ allegations are as specific as they are plausible, and Plaintiffs should be afforded an opportunity to engage in discovery to uncover the full extent of Google’s unauthorized surveillance and to explain to a jury that Google’s conduct so egregiously violates social norms as to be actionable under the California Constitution and common law.”

A judge consolidated the cases in December 2018 so that all of the case opinions could be consistent.

The opposition to Google’s motion to dismiss states, “Plaintiffs allege that for years Google deliberately misled its users that certain settings would prevent Google from tracking and storing a permanent record of their movements, when in fact despite those settings, Google did so anyway.”

The Google class action also alleges that Google relies on misleading statements and provides a numerous amount of claims about the company’s collection of location information that should survive a motion to dismiss.  

The opposition to Google’s motion states that “Although Google’s Motion to Dismiss ostensibly attacks the sufficiency of the pleadings, it actually seeks to have this Court adjudicate disputed facts at the crux of Plaintiffs’ case and Google’s primary defense.”

As an example, the opposition to the motion to dismiss states that Google mentions that there was another way for users to turn off their location information instead of disabling their “Location History.”  

According to Google, users can also disable their “Web & App Activity” as well. But, the plaintiffs allege, Google did not inform the public that this option was available and never claimed before that this setting would work in turning off their location settings.

The plaintiffs opposition to Google’s motion to dismiss states that the users never provided Google with consent to track their location and record their movements.

The users motion states, “In raising consent as a defense to all of Plaintiffs’ claims, Google not only distorts its historical privacy disclosures and misstates Plaintiffs’ allegations, but ignores the law.”

The plaintiffs say they asked Google not to track and store their location and thus only could have contented that Google have access to their location for a limited amount of time.

“Plaintiffs thereby retained their reasonable expectation of privacy that their location information would not be tracked and logged in perpetuity,” the motion continues.

The plaintiffs also allege that Google’s interpretation of the CIPA is separate from the purposes of the current lawsuit and that Google takes phrases from CIPA out of context. To which the plaintiff responded “[b]eyond the implausibility of Google’s interpretations, its argument merely highlights the presence of factual issues, which are inappropriate to resolve on a motion to dismiss.”

The plaintiffs are represented by Tina Wolfson, Theodore W. Maya, Alex R. Straus and Brad King of Ahdoot & Wolfson PC and Michael W. Sobol, Melissa Gardner and Michael Levin-Gesundheit of Lieff Cabraser Heimann & Bernstein LLP.

The Google Privacy Class Action Lawsuit is In re: Google Location History Litigation, Case No. 5:18-cv-05062, in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California.

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