Minors file class action lawsuit against Google over web tracking

Overview of the Google Web Tracking Class Action Lawsuit:

• WHO: A federal judge in California has granted a class action lawsuit filed by a group of six minors through their parents against Google LLC.
• Why: The minors argue that Google collected their personal information through various mobile apps without parental consent, allegedly violating the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act.
• Where: The class action lawsuit was filed in federal court in California.

Google unlawfully invaded the privacy of underage users by collecting personal information about those users through various mobile apps without parental consent, according to a class action lawsuit filed in June 2023 and approved this month by a federal court in California.

A group of six minors claim that Google obtained personal information from children under 13 through Android apps, breaking the law. Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act and general data protection law.

The class action lawsuit, filed by the minors through their parents, argues that Google knew that app developer Tiny Lab Productions was collecting underage users’ data through apps included in Google’s “Designed for Families” program.

Google created the DFF program in 2015 to prevent it from collecting personal information from children under 13 without parental consent, according to an order denying a motion to dismiss the lawsuit.

Google categorized children’s apps in a way that “circumvented” COPPA bans

The group argues that Google included children’s apps in the DFF program that were categorized in a way that allowed developers like Tiny Lab to “circumvent” COPPA’s ban on collecting data from minors under 13.

“(Security researchers at the University of California, Berkeley) found that developers miscategorized their apps and then incorrectly age-restricted them, collecting data from minors under 13 in violation of COPPA,” the court said in an order denying a motion to dismiss the complaint.

In his motion to dismiss, Good argued that the minors filed the June 2023 class action lawsuit too late because Google had already excluded Tiny Lab from the DFF program in 2018 after Berkeley researchers informed Google that the app developer had collected data in violation of COPPA.

The minors, meanwhile, argue that Tiny Lab’s Android apps remained on their phones after 2018 and that Google failed to make policy changes before a 2021 settlement that ended similar lawsuits brought by the New Mexico Attorney General’s Office.

Consumers have recently filed additional class action lawsuits with data tracking against Quantum Metric Inc., Delta Air Lines Inc., TJX Companies Inc., BuzzFeed Inc. and General Motors, OnStar, Verisk Analytics and LexisNexis Risk Solutions.

Has your minor child’s data been collected by Google without your consent? Let us know in the comments.

The plaintiffs are represented by Patrick R. Carey and Mark N. Todzo of the Lexington Law Group and David S. Golub, Steven L. Bloch, Ian W. Sloss, Jennifer Sclar and Jonathan Seredynski of Silver Golub & Teitell LLP.

The Class action lawsuit over Google web tracking Is AB, a minor, by and through his guardian Jen Turner, et al., v. Google LLC, et al.Case No. 5:23-cv-03101, in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California.

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