Google Prevails In Privacy Battle With App Purchaser

by @wendyndavis, January 9, 2017

Google Prevails In Privacy Battle With App Purchaser

Siding with Google, a judge has handed the company a victory in a privacy battle centered on allegations that the company disclosed some app users’ names and other information to developers.

U.S. District Court Judge Beth Labson Freeman in San Jose, California ruled that Google was entitled to summary judgment in the dispute. Freeman’s ruling, issued late last month, wasn’t made publicly available until Monday.

The ruling stemmed from a lawsuit brought in 2013 by Illinois resident Alice Svenson. She alleged in a class-action complaint that she purchased a $1.77 app that converts SMS messages to emails. Svenson, who bought the app from Google Play, said Google shared her personal information with YCDroid, the app’s developer.

Svenson brought the case several months after Australian developer Dan Nolan blogged that Google automatically shares app buyers’ personal information with developers. His post drew headlines, but Google said at the time it intentionally designed its platform to enable app purchasers to buy them directly from developers.

The privacy policy for Google Wallet said the company may disclose information that is necessary to process transactions. Google initially contended it was necessary to share users’ data, because the company doesn’t process the purchase. (In 2014, Google revised its practices.)

Svenson alleged that Google broke its contract by sharing her personal information with a third party.

Google countered that the complaint should be dismissed for several reasons, including that Svenson wasn’t injured by any alleged data sharing.

Svenson had attempted to argue that Google lessened the value of her personal information by sharing it with YCDroid. She asserted in her court papers that there is a “robust market” for that type of data, and that she — and other app purchasers — were deprived of the ability to sell their data themselves.

But Freeman said in her ruling that Svenson hadn’t offered any evidence on that point. “Consequently, Svenson has failed to show the existence of a triable issue of material fact with respect to her claim of injury in fact based on diminution in value of her personal information,” Freeman wrote.

Google also successfully argued that even though YCDroid had “potential access” to Svenson’s data, there was no evidence that the app developer actually viewed the information.

 

MediaPost.com: Search Marketing Daily

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