The company accepts a historic agreement to close a class action lawsuit that accused it of consuming users’ data rates even with their phones locked and apps closed
Google has decided to withdraw its wallet to avoid going to trial. The Mountain View company has agreed to pay 135 million dollars to resolve a class action lawsuit that had been pursuing it for some time and that put its finger on how Android manages our Internet connection.
The plaintiffs alleged that Google had programmed Android to send data to its servers using users’ mobile data rate without their explicit consent. The most worrying thing is that this data consumption occurred in the background. It happened even when users had closed Google apps, turned off location history, or simply had their phone locked in their pocket.
Your gigs paid for their advertising
The legal argument used by the plaintiffs is interesting. They called this practice “conversion,” a legal term used when someone misappropriates another’s property for their own use. In this case the “property” was the mobile data that users religiously pay to their operators each month.
According to the lawsuit, Google used this “free” connection (for them) to collect information that was then used to improve their products and refine their targeted advertising campaigns. Basically, Google used your money to improve its business without you knowing.
As is usual in these macro-agreements, Google continues to deny doing anything wrong. However, he preferred to sign the check rather than face a trial that was scheduled for August 5 in California.
Android is going to change (a little)
The agreement does not just involve a transfer of money. Google has committed to making changes to how Android works to prevent this from happening again.
From now on the company will have to obtain explicit consent from users during the initial configuration of the phone before transferring this type of passive data. In addition, they have promised to include a clear option in the settings (a toggle) that allows users to stop these transfers in a simple and transparent way. They will also update the Google Play terms of service to clearly explain what is happening with your connection.
The plaintiffs’ attorney, Glen Summers, has called the settlement the largest payment ever made in a case of this type. Although individual payments will be capped at $100 per affected user, the message for the industry is resounding: the data rate is sacred and touching it without permission is expensive.