Appeals Court refuses to revive Google, Apple streaming data class action

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Update: 

• The 9th Circuit refused to revive a pair of class action lawsuits claiming Apple and Google unlawfully retained consumers’ iTunes, Google Play and YouTube video rental histories. 
• The unanimous decision upheld lower court rulings stating Apple did not violate New York privacy laws and Google did not violate Minnesota privacy laws.  
• The lower courts found privacy laws in New York and Minnesota don’t create a private right of action that would allow consumers to file a lawsuit against a company for failing to delete records. 
• A judge dismissed the complaints last year. Apple and Google then appealed to the 9th Circuit.

Google Play lawsuit overview: 

• Who: Burke Minahan filed a class action lawsuit against Google LLC. 
• Why: Minahan claims Google violates Minnesota law by allegedly collecting and indefinitely storing the personally identifiable information, including video rental histories, of its Google Play subscribers. 
• Where: The Google class action lawsuit was filed in California federal court. 

(Oct 4, 2022)

Google unlawfully retains the video rental history and personally identifiable information of Google Play subscribers, a new class action lawsuit alleges. 

Plaintiff Burke Minahan claims Google violates Minnesota law by allegedly keeping and maintaining digital records of information such as Google Play subscribers’ names, addresses and credit card information. 

Minahan argues Google also violates Minnesota law by allegedly maintaining a record of its Google Play subscribers’ video rental histories. 

Minnesota law requires Google to destroy any personally identifiable information it collects “as soon as practicable but no later than one year from the date the information is no longer necessary for the purpose for which it was collected,” according to the Google class action. 

Google class action alleges company ‘indefinitely’ retains Google Play subscribers’ personally identifiable information 

Google not only does not destroy its Google Play subscribers’ personally identifiable information as soon as practicable but rather stores it “indefinitely,” the Google Play lawsuit states.

“Google has knowingly retained the personally identifiable information, including sensitive video rental histories, of thousands of Minnesota consumers in violation of Minnesota law,” the Google class action states. 

Minahan wants to represent a class of Minnesota residents who have a Google account and used one of its video-streaming services to rent a video. 

He demands a jury trial and requests declaratory and injunctive relief along with an award of statutory damages for himself and all class members. 

In related Google news, last month, Google agreed to pay $100 million to resolve claims the company violated the privacy of its users by allegedly collecting and storing images of people’s faces in order to build a facial template database. 

Have you used a Google video-streaming service to rent a video? Let us know in the comments! 

The plaintiff is represented by Joseph Henry (Hank) Bates, III of Carney Bates & Pulliam, PLLC. 

The Google Play lawsuit is Minahan v. Google, LLC, Case No. 3:22-cv-05652, in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California.

Read About More Class Action Lawsuits & Class Action Settlements:

• Domino’s class action alleges company captures, stores customer voiceprints during ordering
• Amazon, Prime collect, share private customer data, class action claims
• Class action alleges MLB.tv shares user data with Facebook
• Temu seeks arbitration in data privacy class action