Is the Google Plus Settlement Real?

Former users of the now-defunct Google Plus social networking platform have a chance to recover cash from a $7.5 million class action settlement. 

Google agreed to settle a Google Plus class action lawsuit resolving claims that the platform exposed users’ private data to third-parties.

Users who had a Google Plus account between Jan. 1, 2015 and April 2, 2019, and had personal information exposed due to “software bugs” announced on Oct. 8, 2018 and Dec. 10, 2018, are eligible to claim up to $12 from the Google Plus settlement.

To file a claim, consumers must provide the email address associated with their old Google Plus account.

Those wishing to file a claim under the Google Plus settlement must do so by Oct. 8, 2020, according to the settlement website. Filing a claim also means giving up the right to independently sue Google regarding the allegations made in this case.

Consumers who are eligible to claim compensation under the Google Plus settlement but wish to pursue their own legal action against Google or other released parties must opt out of the settlement. The deadline for consumers to exclude themselves is Oct. 8.

The Google Plus settlement terms also provided $200,000 in attorneys’ fees and $1,500 for each Class Representative.

No business practice changes were required by the settlement because Google shut down the Google Plus platform in April 2019. 

After the breaches were revealed, two class action lawsuits were filed against Google, and eventually were consolidated into one case, according to court documents. 

The Google Plus settlement resolved accusations by lead plaintiffs Matt Matic cand Zak Harris that their usernames, email addresses and photos, as well as information about their interests, relationships and hometowns, were exposed during a data breach benefiting third-party app developers.

The Google Plus settlement says users’ personal information was not accessed by hackers, but rather was potentially revealed to third-party developers known to Google.

The plaintiffs claimed third-parties allowed to access the information were infected with a “bug” that exposed the data.

Google allegedly complicated the matter by failing to disclose the breach to users for seven months in what the plaintiffs say was a “calculated business decision.”

Google revealed the first breach in October 2018 as it announced it would be shutting down Google Plus, court documents state.

According to Google, a “software glitch” had allowed the third-parties to gain access to the personal information between 2015 and March 2018.

The Google class action lawsuit went on to accuse Google of causing the second Google Plus data leak while trying to fix the first one.

Matic and Harris said Google had assured its Google Plus users they would have control over access to the information they provided.

They also claimed Google did nothing to stop the breach from occurring and underestimated the number of users affected by the data breach. 

The plaintiffs had alleged that Google violated California’s Unfair Competition Law and accused the company of negligence, invasion of privacy, breach of confidence, breach of contract and breach of the implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing.

According to court documents, the plaintiffs don’t know the total number of people who meet the settlement’s criteria, but they estimate it to be fewer than 10 million throughout the United States for the Dec. 10, 2018, breach. The number involved in the October 2018 breach could not be determined.

“Although Defendants have reported that only up to 500,000 users were affected, the reality is that this number is what was determined only for the two week period prior to the discovery of the security vulnerability in March 2018,” the class action lawsuit said. “Thus, given that the data leak occurred for nearly 3 years, the number of compromised users is expected to be much higher.”

Google has denied all the plaintiffs’ allegations.

In granting preliminary approval of the Google Plus settlement in June, the Court said it found the settlement to be “fair, reasonable and adequate, entered into in good faith, free of collusion, and within the range of possible judicial approval.”

A final hearing on the settlement is scheduled for Nov. 19, 2020.

Did you have a Google Plus account? Do you believe the Google Plus class action settlement provides adequate compensation? Let us know in the comments. 

The Google Plus Class Action Lawsuit is Matic, et al. v. Google Inc., et al., Case No. 5:18-cv-06164-EJD, in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California.

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