Google Class Actions Over Location Tracking Consolidated In California

UPDATE 2: 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.

UPDATE: On July 2, 2019, Android and iPhone owners asked 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.

Several Google tracking class actions were recently consolidated in California federal court, bringing claims that the tech giant illegally stores user location information.

U.S. District Judge Edward J. Davila recently approved a joint agreement to consolidate six proposed Google class action lawsuit in order to “promote efficiency and avoid the possibility of inconsistent judgments.”

Google was hit with several class action lawsuits in August after an Associated Press investigation revealed that the technology giant tracks and stores the location information of iPhone and Android users without customer consent.

“Google improperly baited users into using its applications and functionalities without worrying about their privacy by representing to users that they could control Google’s access to their location data and allowing them to opt out of giving Google their location data, then Google switched users into allowing it to collect their location data,” one Google tracking class action stated.

Some plaintiffs claim that Google made deceptive statements on the company’s support pages, including alleged representations that users “can turn off location history at any time” and stop tracking on all devices associated with that account.

However, the Associated Press reportedly found that Google continued to store location data if users only disabled the “location history” settings in their account.

The disabling of this setting reportedly only prevented the company from visualizing location data in timeline but did not stop the recording of location data entirely.

According to the Google class action lawsuits, to fully prevent Google from saving location data, users had to disable the “web and app activity” setting in their account. Google allegedly failed to mention this setting to consumers and didn’t provide disclosures that the setting was crucial in their ability to track and store user data.

The AP findings were reportedly supported by a Vanderbilt University study also published in August 2018. Professor Douglas C. Schmidt, who conducted the study on Android devices, reached the conclusion that “[o]ur experiments show that a dormant, stationary Android phone (with Chrome active in the background) communicated location information to Google 340 times during a 24-hour period, or at an average of 14 data communications per hour. In fact, location information constituted 35% of all the data samples sent to Google.”

Following the Associated Press investigation, Google made changes to its disclosures. However, plaintiffs in the Google class action lawsuits claim that this was too little, too late and does not absolve the company of liability.

Consumers who filed the Google class actions aim to hold the tech giant accountable for allegedly breaching the their privacy and disregarding their wishes.

The Google tracking class action seeks compensatory damages, punitive damages, restitution, disgorgement, declaratory relief, injunctive relief, damages, court costs, and attorneys’ fees.

The plaintiffs are represented by Stull Stull & Brody, Levi & Korsinsky LLP, Franklin D. Azar and Associates PC; Ahdoot & Wolfson PC; Lieff Cabraser Heimann and Bernstein LLP; Carney Bates & Pulliam PLLC, and Andrew J. Brown.

The Consolidated Google Tracking Class Action Lawsuits are In re: Google Location History Litigation, Case No. 5:18-­cv­05062, in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California.