ACCC launches Federal Court case against Google over privacy
Google will be facing the Federal Court over allegations it misled Australian consumers to obtain their consent to expand the scope of personal information that it could collect and combine with their other internet activity.
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission has alleged Google misled consumers when it failed to properly inform consumers, and did not gain their explicit informed consent, about its move in 2016 to start combining personal information in consumersā Google accounts with information about those individualsā activities on non-Google sites that used Google technology, formerly DoubleClick technology, to display ads.
āThis meant this data about usersā non-Google online activity became linked to their names and other identifying information held by Google,ā the ACCC said.
āPreviously, this information had been kept separately from usersā Google accounts, meaning the data was not linked to an individual user.
āGoogle then used this newly combined information to improve the commercial performance of its advertising businesses.
āThe ACCC also alleges that Google misled consumers about a related change to its privacy policy.
āWe are taking this action because we consider Google misled Australian consumers about what it planned to do with large amounts of their personal information, including internet activity on websites not connected to Google,ā ACCC chair Rod Sims said.
āGoogle significantly increased the scope of information it collected about consumers on a personally identifiable basis. This included potentially very sensitive and private information about their activities on third-party websites. It then used this information to serve up highly targeted advertisements without consumersā express informed consent,ā Sims said.
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āWe allege that Google did not obtain explicit consent from consumers to take this step.ā
āThe use of this new combined information allowed Google to increase significantly the value of its advertising products, from which it generated much higher profits.ā
āThe ACCC considers that consumers effectively pay for Googleās services with their data, so this change introduced by Google increased the āpriceā of Googleās services, without consumersā knowledge,ā Sims said.
The conduct is alleged to have impacted millions of Australians with Google accounts.
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