Users furrow their class-action brows at Google over privacy… again
Good luck, guys. Two Michigan residents are filing a class-action suit against Google over the sudden location-tracking brouhaha that’s been going down in the past week with first iOS, and now Android. According to them, Google’s location tracking of its HTC Inspire 4G’s is to a level that would normally require a warrant – and as such are demanding that the tracking immediately cease… and $50 million in damages for their trouble. Before you sympathetically take the plaintiff’s side, though, consider that while Google has had its share of privacy fiascoes, Android’s location tracking functionality is entirely opt-in. These users chose to be tracked, and as such aren’t likely to discover much success in grabbing fifty million dollars. Nice try, though. I guess this speaks to a bigger question, though: should we be offered more easy-to-swallow user agreements?
Having easier-to-read contracts would at least help people understand what information was being transmitted and to whom, but people would probably still giving out a lot of info in order to get the functionality (GPS, etc.) that they want.