Google may have to pay all Apple iPhone users compensation at some point in the future, as the legal action against Google for illegal tracking of personal data of more than 4 million iPhone users can go ahead in the UK. The Court of Appeal judges have ruled the search giant had collected data from iPhone users by unlawfully tracking the usage with the use of third-party cookies, and Google lost a landmark case in the court.
The Court of Appeal claimants have also set up a consumer campaign called ‘Google You Owe Us’ alongside the legal action. The claimants allege that Google violated the iPhone privacy by effectively tricking devices into releasing personal data from the Safari web browser. This was done in a way that it bypassed the Do Not Track settings that users may have enabled in the Safari web browser. In a submission to the court, they say the data which Google collected included race, physical and mental health, political leanings, sexuality, social class, financial, shopping habits and location information about users.
Safari is a web browser made for the Apple iPhones, and is an integral part of the iOS operating system designed to run on the iPhones.
Google may have to pay as much as £3.3bn as compensation to iPhone users in the UK. In 2012, Google had agreed to pay $22.5m (£18.3m) in damages over the same issue in the US, after the data tracking was noticed by a Stanford University student studying targeted advertising.
“Protecting the privacy and security of our users has always been our number one priority. This case relates to events that took place nearly a decade ago and that we addressed at the time. We believe it has no merit and should be dismissed,” a Google spokesperson said in a statement to The Telegraph in the UK.
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