Google up to no good again..
http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2014/dec/05/privacy-watchdog-google-row-web-dataThe UK’s privacy regulator, the information commissioner, has taken the unusual step of intervening in a court of appeal case in which Google is seeking to prevent British consumers from suing it.
The action, to be heard on Monday 8 December, will consider a high court decision made in January to allow Google to be sued in the UK for exploiting security loopholes to track Apple’s devices for advertising. The case is being brought on behalf of about 100 Britons, but if they win it could open the company up to claims from millions more who were using Apple equipment in 2010.
In a submission in advance of the hearing, the commissioner, Christopher Graham, said there are serious issues to be tried about whether the data generated by web browsing is personal and whether personal damage can include non-monetary harm.
Both points could be key in clarifying areas of the Data Protection Act that have fallen behind the rapid advance in web and internet use along with the rise of targeted advertising by companies including Google, Facebook and Twitter.
Google is seeking to have the case dismissed on the basis that “there is no serious issue to be tried” because the “alleged incursion into the private life by [Google’s] use of cookies does not reach a level of seriousness to engage Article 8 [of the Human Rights Act 1998]”. In other words, it argues because the consumers involved suffered no harm, the claim lacks merit.
I'm beginning to see why the NSA leech into Googles network, if seems to me that Google is streets ahead of its rivals in gathering far more data than it requires and I expect turns a blind eye to who views it for a price as data collection without purpose is not usually part of their business model.
