A class action privacy lawsuit that was first filed against Google in 2020 has survived a motion for dismissal, and will proceed to a federal jury trial later in 2025. The suit involves a Chrome feature that continued to collect location data even after a setting was changed that appeared to turn it off.
Google’s argument to dismiss the privacy lawsuit was that the plaintiffs should have been aware that third-party apps that make use of Google Analytics tools might continue to collect location data about them independently. The judge determined that a “reasonable user” could not be expected to know that they were consenting to this data collection, citing internal discussions from the company in which its own employees described the distinction as “intentionally vague.”
Class action privacy lawsuit against Google will continue in August 2025
Chief Judge Richard Seeborg of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California in San Francisco determined that the privacy lawsuit’s claimants would have reasonably expected that disabling Chrome history and activity from Google services in the Web App and Activity settings would extend to third parties running Google Analytics. The location data was gathered by a specific tool, Google Analytics for Firebase (GA4F), a free piece of software commonly used by app developers to track ad engagement and assorted aspects of app usage.
Google’s counter-argument is that since GA4F use is conducted by third parties, users should not expect it to be included when they opt out of tracking done by Google services. It additionally argued that the GA4F data is pseudonymous and that it was used only for what it called “basic record-keeping.”
As Google Analytics services do anonymize users of apps and websites, only presenting data in terms of general categories and patterns, that argument might have held some merit had Google internal communications on the feature not been introduced to the privacy lawsuit’s court proceedings. In the company’s internal discussions, Google employees expressed concern about users not understanding that third party analytics data would still be collected if the Web App and Activity setting was disabled and even referred to it one point as “intentionally vague.” This seems to have swayed the judge’s decision, who specifically noted one employee describing the setting as potentially “alarming to users.”
The trial will pick up on August 18 of this year. The privacy lawsuit accuses Google of violating a California state law that makes it a matter of fraud to intercept and store user browsing histories without consent. The judge opined that a trial should determine whether the internal employee communications that were critical of the location data setting were a good faith attempt to improve the product, or an admission of knowing deceit of users in the design of the product.
Trial continues long string of Google location data troubles
Google has run into a string of privacy lawsuits involving Chrome and continued tracking when privacy settings are enabled. It settled another one involving location data in 2022 for $400 million, that one involving the attorney generals of 40 states bringing a joint action against it. That suit differs in that it involved Android privacy settings on devices, with Google allegedly continuing to track user locations via apps such as Maps and Search. The state of Arizona brought its own separate suit over this issue that was settled separately for $85 million. Several other states opted to continue their own investigations into the practice and may bring legal action at some point in the future.
Google also settled another privacy lawsuit in 2024 that involved Chrome settings, in that case the “Incognito mode.” That case similarly involved users believing that when the mode was enabled, third-party sites in Google’s advertising network would not be collecting information about them. That settlement required Google to delete the accumulated records of some 136 million users in the US, but got the company off the hook for a payment that was estimated to have been in the billions of dollars if the judgement went against them.
Location data is one of the cornerstones of Google’s advertising empire, with the company deriving a great deal of its revenue from using locations to target user searches for products and services and deliver ads from partners in that immediate area. But location data is also broadly viewed as “sensitive personal information” under national regulations throughout the world, and it has thus contributed to its seemingly endless drip of fines and penalties for mishandling personal information and failing to obtain appropriate consent. The company has paid out the equivalent of over $11 billion USD in fines around the world since 2017, though a substantial chunk of that is drawn from anti-competition decisions rather than cases involving personal information.