Google Sued on Behalf of 5.4 Million Britons Due to iPhone Snooping

Google are sued on behalf of 5.4m Britons sue to iPhone snooping between 2011-2012

Did you own an iPhone between 2011-2012? Did you search using Google? Then pay attention, a legal case has been submitted which means you could be entitled to compensation.

Between 2011 and 2012 it was found that Google placed cookies via the Safari search engine which allowed them to snoop on your activity. Now, this certainly isn’t the first instance of phone spying to be brought to the public attention, it is, however, one of the most major legal cases ever taken against Google.

The campaign subtly titled ‘Google You Owe Us’ claims that between June 2011 and February 2012 Google deliberately bypassed the privacy settings on users iPhones. It did this by adding cookies when used as a search engine on Safari. This, by proxy, allowed Google to collect data from users phones.

Richard Lloyd, representing the claimant in the case has said via Skynews that: “My job is to represent everyone that was affected by this breach of trust by Google to make sure that these vast companies have to be held accountable in the British courts.”

What does this mean for me?

Well, the truth of the matter is that I have no idea how successful such a claim would be. I fancy that Google has some pretty good lawyers on their books. The bottom line though is that if successful, any iPhone owner in England and Wales within those dates could be entitled to compensation.

How much compensation is unclear. However, reports suggest anything up to £200 might be possible leaving Google with a bill of around £1b.

Google has said in response to the court action that: “This is not new – we have defended similar cases before. We don’t believe it has any merit and we will contest it.”

Incidentally, this isn’t the first time Apple and Google have been involved together in legal tussles.

What do you think? A pointless legal case or are there some grounds? – Let us know in the comments. Either way, I wouldn’t be planning your spending of that £200 anytime soon.