“Today’s judgment is extremely disappointing and effectively leaves millions of people without any practical way to seek redress and compensation when their personal data has been misused,”
London’s High Court on Monday blocked an attempt to bring legal action against Alphabet Inc’s Google over claims it had collected sensitive data from more than 4 million iPhone users although it said the company’s actions had been “wrongful”.
Google had argued the mass case brought by Lloyd, the only named claimant, was not appropriate and should not proceed.
“There is no dispute that it is arguable that Google’s alleged role in the collection, collation, and use of data obtained via the Safari Workaround was wrongful, and a breach of duty,” the judge, Mark Warby, said in his ruling.
However, he said the case brought by Lloyd did not support the contention that he and those he represented had suffered “damage” as specified by Britain’s Data Protection Act nor could the court allow such representative action to go ahead.
In his ruling, he said the main beneficiaries of the claim would have been those who funded it and the lawyers.
Lloyd said his group, to which 20,000 people had signed up to, would seek permission to appeal the decision.
“Today’s judgment is extremely disappointing and effectively leaves millions of people without any practical way to seek redress and compensation when their personal data has been misused,” he said in a statement.
“Google’s business model is based on using personal data to target adverts to consumers and they must ask permission before using this data. The court accepted that people did not give permission in this case yet slammed the door shut on holding Google to account.”
A Google spokeswoman said: “The privacy and security of our users are extremely important to us. This claim is without merit, and we’re pleased the Court has dismissed it
Google remains under pressure from lawmakers and regulators over its privacy practices in the US, where it has acknowledged making mistakes in the past.
In 2012, it agreed to pay a then-record civil penalty of 22.5 million dollars to settle Federal Trade Commission charges that it misrepresented to Apple Safari Internet browser users that it would not place tracking “cookies” or serve them targeted ads.
