Google to pay $350M settlement in Google+ data breach

Google+ settlement overview: 

• Who: Google agreed to a $350 million settlement in a lawsuit claiming a three-year software glitch exposed Google+ users’ personal data. 
• Why: The lawsuit alleged Google hid the data breach while publicly stressing its commitment to data security.
• Where: The Google+ data breach settlement was filed in federal court in San Francisco.

Google agreed to a $350 million settlement in a lawsuit claiming a software glitch led to a data breach in which Google+ users’ personal data was exposed for three years, Reuters reports.

The lawsuit alleged Google knew about the data breach in March 2018 but did not acknowledge it while publicly stressing its commitment to data security.

U.S. District Judge Trina Thompson must now approve in federal court in San Francisco, according to Reuters.

Rhode Island Treasurer James Diossa filed the lawsuit, representing a state pension fund that owned Alphabet stock, Reuters says. The lawsuit also represents Alphabet shareholders from April 23, 2018, to April 30, 2019.

Settlement comes weeks after another Google settlement on user data

The Google settlement came weeks after another settlement in a lawsuit claiming the company tracked Chrome web browser users in private mode. 

The parties did not disclose terms of the settlement. Chrome users previously sought $5 billion. 

The Google settlement comes after five years of litigation in the case and Google’s unsuccessful attempt to appeal the case to the U.S. Supreme Court, according to The Washington Post.

In January 2020, Google agreed to pay $7.5 million to settle claims arising from a data breach on its Google+ platform that potentially exposed users’ profile information to third-parties.

Was your information exposed in the Google+ data breach? Let us know in the comments.

The plaintiffs are represented by Jason A. Forge, Laura Andracchio, Michael Albert, J. Marco Janoski Gray, Ting H. Liu, Kenneth P. Dolitsky and Sarah A. Fallon of Robbins Geller Rudman & Dowd LLP.

The Google+ data breach investors lawsuit is In re: Alphabet Inc. Securities Litigation, Case No. 3:18-cv-06245, in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California.

Read About More Class Action Lawsuits & Class Action Settlements:

• ‘Mother of all data breaches’ includes more records, brands than initially thought
• 23andMe hackers sought Jewish, Chinese customers’ data, class action alleges
• Progressive customers fight to keep data breach class action alive
• Microsoft employees hit with data breach by Russian state-backed group