Two sets of plaintiffs in the District of Columbia and Maryland filed complaints this week in federal court against Internet juggernaut Google Inc., accusing the company of unlawfully tracking the activity of users through the Safari Web browser.
The class actions are among at least 10 similar cases filed against Google since mid-February. The U.S. Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation is considering a motion filed by Google on March 2 to consolidate the cases and transfer them to the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California.
Google is accused of using a code to disable default security protections built into Safari, the default browser used in Apple Inc., products such as laptops, tablets and phones.
With the security protections disabled, third-party tracking technology known as "cookies" could keep tabs on users' Web activity, the plaintiffs claim. Cookies allow companies like Google to tailor online ads based on what the user has been looking at online.
By allegedly deactivating Safari's default settings and allowing cookies to track users' online activity without their permission, the plaintiffs claim Google violated the federal Wiretap Act, Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, and Stored Electronic Communications Act.
Hassan Zavareei and Jonathan Tycko of Washington's Tycko & Zavareei are representing plaintiffs in the Washington and Maryland cases, which were filed on March 6 and March 5, respectively.
Zavareei said in a phone interview Thursday that his firm is coordinating with plaintiffs' counsel in other jurisdictions where similar cases have been filed, which include federal districts in California, Delaware, Florida, Illinois, Kansas, Mississippi, Missouri and New Jersey.
"We think that what Google did was a plain violation of computer users' right to privacy and actually constituted a theft of their personal information," he said. "We view this as a very serious case, and we look forward to an excellent resolution for those consumers whose information was improperly taken in violation of the law by Google."
Google is being represented by Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati in Palo Alto, Calif. Partner David Kramer referred a request for comment to Google. A Google representative did not immediately return a request for comment on Thursday.
This article originally appeared in The National Law Journal.
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Source: http://www.law.com/jsp/cc/PubArticleCC.jsp?id=1331103810030&rss=cc
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