Google's Safari Exploit Draws Privacy-Based Class Action Lawsuit
February 21, 2012
Like clockwork, Google's been slapped with a class action lawsuit as a result of last week's Safari "privacy" breach. Filed in the US District Court for Delaware, the suit claims the search giant is in violation of various federal regulations, including the Federal Wiretap Act, the Stored Electronic Communications Act, and the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act.
As for case specifics, Ars Technica reports that
[t]he plaintiff, Matthew Soble, argues that Google violated numerous federal laws designed to protect user privacy on the Web and asks the court for damages for all Safari-using Googlers like himself.While it remains unknown exactly what kind of compensation affected users might get, Google has a few options. Perhaps they could offer some kind of comprehensive, gratis global email system. Or maybe they could create and maintain -- free of charge -- an online platform by which folks could find answers to various queries and conundrums. Heck, they could even develop an open-source mobile OS to make low-cost smartphones available to hundreds of millions of people worldwide. Of course, they'd probably have to fund all that goodwill with targeted advertising, which is, apparently, a big privacy no-no. Maybe they could just give everyone five dollars in Google Checkout credit. That would be sweet!
