Happy Nice Mall

A federal judge is allowing a collective privacy lawsuit to be filed against Google, rejecting the tech giant’s effort to dismiss claims that it violated people’s privacy.

U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers denied Google’s motion to dismiss the lawsuit’s allegations of breach of contract, breach of privacy, and release of proprietary information.

The plaintiffs, who hold Google accounts, allege that Google collects data from everyone who uses its services, and then distributes and sells the information for targeted advertising through a real-time bidding (RTB) system.

Judge Gonzalez Rogers’ decision this week from the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California said plaintiffs have the right to sue and wrote that plaintiffs had successfully demonstrated that the bidding process had not been adequately explained to Google users.

“Specifically, the plaintiffs allege that Google sold sensitive personal information such as plaintiff’s IP address, geolocation data and web browsing information, search terms, and sensitive websites related to race, religion, sexual orientation, and health that plaintiffs visited.” Written by Judge Gonzalez Rogers. Google argues that such information is routinely shared and therefore cannot support a reasonable expectation of privacy. Not like that.”

Google responded to the judge’s decision by insisting that its advertising business values ​​people’s privacy.

“Privacy and transparency are at the core of how our advertising services work,” Google spokesperson José Castañeda said in a statement. “We never sell people’s personal information, we have strict policies that specifically prohibit personalized advertising based on categories of sensitive information, and sensitive user data such as health, race or religion is not shared with our partners.”

Judge Gonzalez Rogers also granted Google’s motion to dismiss plaintiffs’ claim that Google violated an implied contract of good faith and fair trade. The judge wrote that the plaintiffs did not sufficiently demonstrate that Google acted in bad faith or failed to go beyond breach of contract.