Google Faces Pressure From Nationwide Data Privacy Class Action Brought by BFA Along With Co-counsel Firms, Simmons Hanly Conroy and Kaplan Fox

As reported in a recent MLex article, Google has announced that when it stops supporting third-party cookies next year it does not plan to use more invasive user-identifier tracking techniques. Google has also pledged to not use or build user-specific profiles based on a user’s activity across the web, like personal identifiable information-based graphs. With this technique, marketers create an identity graph, which is a collection of “unique identifiers” correlated with an individual user including for example, email addresses, phone numbers, device identifiers, account usernames, transaction data, and cookie information.

This announcement comes as Google faces pressure from a nationwide data privacy class action brought by BFA along with co-counsel firms, Simmons Hanly Conroy and Kaplan Fox. Plaintiffs in this action allege that Google told Chrome users that the “personal information that Chrome stores won’t be sent to Google unless you choose to store that data in your Google Account by turning on Sync.” In violation of this promise, Chrome collects and sends users’ personal information to Google regardless of whether a user has turned on Sync. Google’s announcement further highlights that users should not have to accept the constant collection and tracking of their personal information to use the web.

To read more, download the article posted to the right or visit MLex’s website at www.mlexmarketinsight.com.