An appellate court in the UK ruled earlier today that British iPhone users could pursue their privacy suit against Google arising out of the “Cookiegate” scandal of 2012, which involved circumvention of Safari browser privacy settings. In addition to a UK government investigation a civil lawsuit was filed in 2013.
Google had tried to dismiss the case on jurisdictional grounds, arguing that UK courts had no ability to hear the case and that plaintiffs had to come to California to sue the company. The trial court rejected that argument last year.
Google appealed the decision and today a British appellate court agreed to allow the privacy litigation to move forward.
In its article on the decision, The Wall Street Journal quoted the UK court, which observed that the plaintiffs had “suffered damage to personal dignity, autonomy and integrity and have been caused anxiety and distress.” The court also apparently remarked that Google should have known that its data collection was “exceeding what should have been expected under its privacy policies.”
Cookiegate was originally exposed by the Wall Street Journal in 2012. In the US Google paid a $22.5 million fine to settle the case with the Federal Trade Commission. There was also a separate $17 million settlement with states Attorneys General in 2013.
Google was not the only party involved in Cookiegate. Other ad networks, including Gannett’s PointRoll, also bypassed mobile Safari browser’s default “no third party cookies” settings. Google said at the time that it was simply trying to make its “+1 buttons” work on iOS.
When the issue first came to light, in 2012, Google issued this statement:
We used known Safari functionality to provide features that signed-in Google users had enabled. It’s important to stress that these advertising cookies do not collect personal information.
I’m not clear on what damages will be available to the UK plaintiffs should they prevail. But the court’s decision today makes settlement of the case more likely.
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