Google is once again under fire for alleged tracking activity.
Angela Lang/CNET
A lawsuit filed Tuesday alleges Google tracks user activity through hundreds of thousands of apps, even after people opt out of sharing information. The lawsuit, which seeks class-action status, was filed by law firm Boies Schiller Flexner on behalf of several individuals. The firm has represented competitors to Google, including Facebook and Oracle, according to Reuters. Last month, the firm filed another suit related to privacy in Google’s Chrome browser.
Google didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
The suit, filed in the US District Court for the Northern District of California, alleges that Google violates wiretapping and privacy laws by tracking what users look at in various apps, even after they turn off Web & App Activity tracking in their Google account settings.
The complaint alleges Google tracks and collects users’ app activity through Firebase, a suite of software tools that app makers use to store data, send notifications and ads, and track glitches and clicks. According to the suit, “Through Firebase SDK, Google can ‘[l]og the user’s interactions with the app, including viewing content, creating new content, or sharing content.’… In other words, Google aggressively tracks what consumers browse, see, create, and share online when using the apps installed on their mobile devices.”
In June, Boies Schiller Flexner sued Google for $5 billion for allegedly tracking people’s internet use, even when their browsers were set to incognito mode. Google said it disputed the claims and would defend itself against them.
You can read Tuesday’s lawsuit here:
2020-07-14 [Dkt. 1] Rodgriguez Et Al. v Google LLC Et Al. by jonathan_skillings on Scribd