Google Toolbar Class Action Lawsuit

Looks like Google is in trouble, once again, for spying on users. Just six months after Google was hit with a series of class action lawsuits after it admitted its Google Map Street View cars had “accidentally” collected user data from unprotected home WiFi networks, the tech giant is facing another class action lawsuit over improperly collecting highly personal data from users through Google’s Toolbar.

According to the Google Toolbar class action lawsuit, the Toolbar transmits to Google certain information about the user’s web activity, including the specific pages the user views and information he or she searches for online. The class action claims that Google deceives users into believing they can maintain web-browsing privacy by disabling these features, when, “in reality, the function that supposedly turned off Toolbar or its transmission features only turned off the display of Toolbar in the user’s window. Toolbar itself continued to function in the background, transmitting to Google the address of every web page viewed by the user, along with information that identified the individual user.”

The Google Toolbar class action alleges Google knew about “serious discrepancies between what it said about Toolbar and how Toolbar actually functioned,” but failed to take any corrective action until late January of this year when “publicity revealed the details of Toolbar’s improper data collection. Google still has not taken steps to purge the improperly collected and highly personal data that Toolbar improperly collected.”

Google claims that Toolbar runs on “hundreds of millions” of computers, which means millions of Americans have had their personal data collected and stored. Why should you care? Because “in addition to Google’s use and sharing of data permitted by its Terms of Service, user data retained by Google may pose user consequences that lie outside Google’s control,” the lawsuit says, including the fact that “Toolbar data is subject to disclosure in civil proceedings and under government subpoena.”

The Google Toolbar data collection lawsuit is brought on behalf of a proposed class of individuals or entities in the United States who, from June 30, 2009 to the present, downloaded, installed and used Google Toolbar with the result that their information, including URLs visited, was transmitted to Google without their informed consent. It is seeking damages, restitution to class members of all benefits wrongfully acquired by Google and full compensation to class members for all costs arising from Google’s wrongful conduct. It is also seeking, among other things, an order prohibiting Google from further collecting user data through the Toolbar and requiring Google to delete all data wrongfully collected and retained through the Toolbar.

A copy of the Google Toolbar Class Action Lawsuit can be read here.