Without a trace

Tuesday 31 March 2015

A group of British consumers have won the right to sue Google in the UK over the mega-corporation’s alleged misuse of privacy settings.

In a landmark outcome Google have lost their appeal to the Court of Appeal in which they argued that the consumers’ case should be thrown out because, amongst other things, they had suffered no financial harm. The Court of Appeal dismissed the appeal, finding in favour of the consumers and potentially opening the door to hundreds of other similar court actions in the UK against Google.

The case centred on Google’s ability to bypass certain Safari users’ web browsers’ default privacy settings by using a ‘workaround’ system to place cookies on their computers. Cookies are small text files which are stored by browsers and can be used to gather data such as surfing habits, race, ethnicity and social class, without a user knowing. Safari is a web browser supported by Apple and is used on most Apple Computers, iPads and other devices.

Safari can be configured to reject a website’s cookies unless there is an interaction with a web page – for example, Safari will accept a login cookie if the user logs into a forum site using a username and password form. In order to get around this privacy control, it is alleged that Google faked a form submission when the browser visited a server run by Google, effectively tricking Safari into accepting tracking cookies that identified users. Web browsing information was then stored and the user was subjected to targeted marketing based on their browsing history.

This ‘workaround’ system was in place for nine months between summer 2011 and spring 2012 and had already been identified as an issue by US researchers, whereby the US Federal Trade Commission had considered it sufficiently serious to fine Google $22.5 million for the alleged privacy violation.

Dismissing the appeal the Court of Appeal stated that “these claims raise serious issues which merit a trial”. In response to Google’s assertions that the claim ought to be dropped as no financial harm was suffered by the user, the Court of Appeal stated “the case relates to the anxiety and distress this intrusion upon autonomy has caused.”

One of the three claimants welcomed the judgement describing it as a “David and Goliath victory.”

“The Court of Appeal has ensured Google cannot use its vast resources to evade English justice,” stated Marc Bradshaw. “Ordinary computer users like me will now have the right to hold this giant to account before the courts for its unacceptable, immoral and unjust actions.”

Despite Google asserting that the case was not serious enough to be heard and that it was “disappointed” with the outcome, the verdict has sent a powerful message to large corporations that the UK justice system will bring to justice any person or corporation, large or small, provided the facts and circumstances of the case merit it.