According to Bloomberg, Google agreed to pay $23 million to settle a class action lawsuit that was filed against the company 12 years ago. The lawsuit claims Google has shared users’ search data with third-party companies.
Lawsuits against Google and its business practices have no end. The search giant pays millions of dollars in fines every few months to settle lawsuits. Most of these lawsuits are filed around privacy violations. Likewise, the company is accused of sharing search data with advertisers and other third-party companies without the user’s permission.
As per the lawsuit’s details, when a user clicks on a query on Google, its data is shared with the website and advertiser. The advertisers also use the data to figure out what queries brought users to specific pages. This is reportedly against the federal Stored Communications Act and California domestic laws.
Law firms Nassiri & Jung LLP, KamberLaw LLC, and Progressive Law Group LLC represent consumers.
Google to pay $23 million over sharing user’s search data with advertiser
Back in 2013, Google was ready to pay $8.5 million to settle the case. However, the deal was canceled due to the Supreme Court’s decision in Spokeo Inc. v. Robins case. At the time, Google argued that users couldn’t claim their privacy was violated when the searches were not related to their identity.
Besides paying $23 million, Google must now inform users about sharing their data with third-party agencies. Additionally, the lawsuit needs court approval to be finalized.
These multi-million dollar fines are coming in the days when Google is reportedly preparing for harder economic situations. The search giant slowed hiring due to economic uncertainty and might even lay off some of its employees in 2023.
Google CEO Sundar Pichai has recently announced a new performance review system for 2023 (via CNBC). He also wanted employees that most of them might be at risk due to poor performance. Pichai already told employees Google needs to be at least 20% more efficient.