Google Class Action Says Company Tracks Location of Users Who Opt-Out

A Google class action lawsuit says the technology giant has been tracking the location of phone users illegally.

The Google class action lawsuit alleges that the company is carrying out a deceptive and unlawful practice of tracking the location of millions of mobile phone users who have opted out of tracking.

According to the Google tracking class action lawsuit, the company is capturing and storing time-tracked data.

The Google class action lawsuit says that the company gives phone owners a false sense of security in allowing users to opt out of mobile phone location tracking and then tracking them anyways.

An Associated Press investigation that came out before the filing of the Google class action lawsuit, however, shows that the opt-out feature might not be accurate and that Google is still continuing to capture and store the private locations of the phones owners.

The Google class action lawsuit says that even when someone has affirmatively opted out of location tracking, Google apps will store the time-stamped data. The report details that this is not limited to Google apps, either – simple searches on the Google website can also detail a person’s location exactly.

The plaintiff says that the company is responsible for violating the privacy of users who believe that their location data has not been stored.

Those people who want to have their personal information and location protected, argues the Google class action lawsuit, would have no reason to expect that the company was tracking and collecting this data.

The Google tracking class action says that the company has already violated the privacy of users by collecting this data despite the user’s express wish to opt out.

The Google class action seeks to represent Class Members who have Apple or Android phones and affirmatively opted out of the Location History feature on their phone.

The plaintiff also seeks to represent a subclass of users in New York who own Android or Apple mobile phones and turned their Location History off but had it tracked anyways.

The Google class action says that the company violated California Invasion of Privacy laws and New York General Business Law and should therefore be held accountable for this breach.

According to the Google tracking class action, the company is responsible for negligent and intentional misrepresentation by leading customers to assume that they were not having private location data tracked by Google while using their phones in an everyday capacity despite the fact that the company was indeed capturing private data and storing it for ad purposes.

Another recent class action against Google says the company is using this information illegally for marketing and advertising purposes and even collects revenues from it.

Plaintiff George Jack who filed this most recent Google tracking class action lawsuit claims that the company has violated the privacy of users without their permission.

Jack is represented by Rosemary M. Rivas, Rosanne L. Mah, and Courtney Maccarone of Levi & Korsinsky LLP.

The Google Location Tracking Class Action Lawsuit is George Jack v. Google Inc., Case No. 5:18-cv-06652, in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California.