Google won’t face email privacy class action

Monday, 24 March 2014 00:02 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

REUTERS: Google Inc won a significant legal victory as a US judge decided not to combine several lawsuits that accused the internet search company of violating the privacy rights of hundreds of millions of email users into a single class action. The US District Judge Lucy Koh in San Jose, California, said the claims, including those on behalf of users of Google’s popular Gmail service, were too dissimilar to be grouped together. She also said the plaintiffs cannot pursue their broad-based class action again.

A class action could have exposed Google to billions of dollars of potential damages and added pressure on the Mountain View, California-based company to settle. Instead, email users might now be forced to sue individually or in small groups, lowering recoveries and boosting costs. The case has been closely watched for guidance on how technology companies that provide email services might collect data used to target advertising, and perhaps boost revenue and profitability. Gmail users accused Google of violating federal and state privacy and wiretapping laws by scanning their messages so it could compile secret account profiles and target advertising. Claims were also raised on behalf of students at schools that use Gmail, and people who do not use Gmail but communicate by email with people who do. The lawsuit sought damages of $ 100 per day for each email user whose privacy was violated. Google has said its software simply looks for keywords that can lead to the tailored advertisements. Matt Kallman, a Google spokesman, said: “We’re glad the court agreed that we have been upfront about Gmail’s automated processing.”