Campaign group You Owe Us is currently pushing for legal action against Google, requiring the tech company to pay iPhone users. They are fighting for compensation after Google bypassed Safari privacy settings on 5.4 million iPhones between the months of June 2011 and February 2012. #securemagic
Despite Safari’s default settings, Google used a backdoor method 5 years ago to install cookies on Apple mobile devices without users’ knowledge. Normally, these settings prevent advertisers and companies like Google to uses cookies, but Google bypassed these Safari settings, thereby tracking your browsing data without your consent. This has been called the “Safari Workaround”
After this came to light, the U.S. Federal Trade Commission fined Google $22.5 million for violating user privacy. On top of that, You Owe Us filed a representative action lawsuit, meaning a single person makes a claim on behalf of a larger group for a particular offense. This lawsuit could end up costing Google as much as $3.63 billion! As the group explained to potential affected members in England and Wales, “if you were affected you will automatically be part of the claim and you do not need to take any further action. Richard Lloyd and the lawyers are taking care of the case.”
Want to know if you were affected by Google’s “Safari Workaround” or wish not to participate in the lawsuit? Click here.
Follow TechTheLead on Google News to get the news first.
