$8.5M Google Search Data Class Action Settlement Gets Preliminary OK

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A California federal judge has preliminarily approved an $8.5 million class action settlement that would resolve allegations that Google Inc. illegally divulged users’ search data to third parties.

The class action settlement will resolve allegations that Google’s search engine operated in such a way that violated Google users’ Internet privacy rights by disclosing personal information to third parties. The search engine allegedly included users’ search terms in the URL of the search results page, enabling third party website owners to receive the search terms any time a Google user clicked on a link to their website from the search results page. The plaintiffs claim that users’ search terms can contain personal information, such as names, addresses and Social Security numbers, that could increase the risk of identity theft.

U.S. District Judge Edward J. Davila granted preliminary approval to the Google privacy settlement and conditionally certified a potential class of more than 100 million Google search users. He approved the class action settlement despite concerns that the agreement would not provide direct monetary relief to consumers, would benefit inappropriate cy pres recipients, and did not require Google to make substantive changes to its business practices.

Under the terms of the class action settlement, Google would pay millions of dollars to Internet privacy groups and nonprofit organizations, including Stanford Law’s Center for Internet and Society; Harvard Law School’s Berkman Center for Internet and Society; World Privacy Forum; Carnegie-Mellon; Chicago-Kent College of Law Center for Information, Society and Policy; and AARP Inc.

Privacy advocates expressed concern that these cy pres recipients would not further Class Members’ privacy interests. However, Judge Davila disagreed, finding that the plaintiffs had sufficiently demonstrated the organizations’ would further their interests. “All of the cy pres recipients were chosen only after they met certain qualifying criteria tailored to the claims in this case and submitted detailed proposals aimed at resolving issues in the area of Internet privacy,” he wrote. He found that the proposed cy pres distribution was sufficiently related to the Class Members’ interests as to justify preliminary approval of the class action settlement.

Although Judge Davila found that the class action settlement terms were reached after much deliberation and with the assistance of an experienced mediator, he acknowledged that “there are certain aspects of the settlement which could weigh against a finding of fairness.” Significantly, Google’s practices will not be changed as a result of the settlement. However, Google will be required to make disclosures that inform users in advance about how their search terms might be provided to third parties.

“Considering all of the circumstances which led to a compromise here, the relief obtained for the class does fall within a reasonable range of possible settlements since it was entirely possible that nothing would be obtained if the case were dismissed or if Defendant received a favorable verdict at trial – two entirely possible scenarios that would have allowed Defendant to continue its practice without further comment,” the judge wrote. “Under this settlement, that result is avoided by providing a means for future users of Defendant’s website to know the disclosure practices before conducting a search.”

The plaintiffs are represented by Kassra P. Nassiri of Nassiri & Jung LLP and Michael J. Aschenbrener of Aschenbrener Law PC.

The Google Search Data Class Action Lawsuit is In re: Google Referrer Header Privacy Litigation, Case No. 5:10-cv-04089, in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California.