Google faces lawsuit over app tracking even when users chose not to participate

OAKLAND, California (Reuters) – Alphabet Inc’s (GOOGL.O) Google records what people are doing in hundreds of thousands of mobile apps, even as they follow the company’s recommended settings to stop such monitoring, a lawsuit seeking the alleged class action status on Tuesday.

The data privacy lawsuit is the second in so many months filed against Google by the law firm Boies Schiller Flexner on behalf of a handful of individual consumers. The firm’s clients have also included Google competitors such as Facebook Inc (FB.O) and Oracle Corp (ORCL.N)

Google did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the filing.

New complaint in a United States district court in San José accuses Google of violating the federal wiretapping law and California’s privacy law by recording what users are seeing in the news, calls, and other types of applications even though they have deactivated “Web and application activity” Tracking in the settings of your Google account.

The lawsuit alleges that the data collection occurs through Google’s Firebase, a suite of software popular with app makers to store data, deliver notifications and advertisements, and track failures and clicks. Firebase generally operates within applications invisible to consumers.

“Even when consumers follow Google’s own instructions and turn off ‘Web and app activity’ tracking in their ‘Privacy Controls’, Google, however, continues to intercept the use of consumer applications and communications from navigation of applications and personal information “, maintains the demand.

According to the lawsuit, Google uses some Firebase data to improve its products and to personalize ads and other content for consumers.

Reuters reported in March that United States antitrust investigators are investigating whether Google has illegally stifled competition in advertising and other businesses by making Firebase inevitable.

In his case last month, Boies Schiller Flexner accused Google of surreptitiously recording Chrome browser user activity, even when they activated what Google calls incognito mode. Google said it would fight the claim.