Google’s Surveillance Worse Than a Science Fiction Novel, Class Action Lawsuit Alleges

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Google engages in illegal, omnipresent surveillance of people’s lives, in a way much worse than George Orwell imagined in his classic science fiction book 1984, a new class action lawsuit claims.

In the nationwide class action lawsuit filed Tuesday in a California federal court, Plaintiff Salvatore Toronto, a Google account holder, alleges the Internet giant continues to violate privacy laws, even after a record $170 million privacy settlement in 2019. 

Toronto says that, since at least 2009, Google has misled consumers into believing that it does not sell their personal information, but then has done exactly that, earning billions of dollars in advertising revenue in the process. 

He says Google has continued to sell customers’ personal information even after paying hundreds of millions of dollars in settlements to federal, state, and E.U. regulators and promising to stop its unlawful practices. 

In September 2019, it paid the record $170 million to settle allegations by the Federal Trade Commission and the New York Attorney General that Google’s YouTube illegally collected personal information from children without their parents’ consent, the class action says.

Toronto says, since then, Google has repeatedly falsely represented to consumers that it values privacy and gives users control of their personal information. 

“Information, as they say, is the new oil or gold,” the class action says. “Alphabet, through its wholly- owned subsidiary Google LLC, has amassed a huge treasure trove of its clients’ personally- identifiable information in order to profit from such data.” 

Toronto says, contrary to its promise that it will protect its users’ privacy, Google actually sells and shares Google account holders’ sensitive personal information to millions of companies through its Real-Time Bidding (RTB) auction system. 

He alleges that the exchange of Bidstream Data — the terms Google uses to refer to the information it collects about auction participants —  constitutes a sale of personal information.

“Through its RTB auction, Google violates its express contractual promises to its account holders. It also violates laws prohibiting Google from selling account holders’ personal and/or sensitive information, including when it sells and discloses such information for the purpose of targeting them,” the claim states.

Bidstream Data includes users’ location, web browsing choices, and other data, which is then sold by data brokers to businesses, hedge funds, political parties and even to the government without court orders, the class action says. 

“The enormous data dossiers that Google has compiled on Americans are so enormous and extensive that that are reminiscent of what George Orwell warned about in 1984, except that Orwell only envisioned the government itself having enough power to engage in omnipresent surveillance of people’s lives.”

Toronto says, since Google account holders are not informed about this dissemination of their personal information, they cannot exercise reasonable judgment to defend themselves against the ways Google uses their data to make money.

Toronto is looking to represent all Google account holders in the United States whose personal information was sold or shared by Google without their consent. He is suing for breach of contract, and violations of statutory and common law. 

The class action is asking for compensatory damages, unjust enrichment, punitive damages, injunctive relief, an injunction, fees costs and a jury trial.

This is the latest in a string of class actions and lawsuits against Google. Many of Google’s products, and the Google company itself have faced backlash following consumer and employee claims of company misconduct, which have led to numerous lawsuits and class actions lawsuits being filed. 

The Google lawsuits follow claims that the technology company violated anti-trust laws, breached the privacy of users, are guilty of gender discrimination, and more. Click here for the latest information.

Are you concerned with how Google is using your data? Let us know in the comments! 

The plaintiff is represented by Anne B. Beste, Francis A. Bottini, Jr. Albert Y. Chang and Yury A. Kolesnikov of Bottini & Bottini, INC. 

The Google Bidstream Privacy Class Action Lawsuit is Toronto et al., v. Google, LLC, Case No. Case 5:21-cv-03725 in the U.S. District Court Northern District of California San Jose Division.

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