Google Sued For Data Costs After Android Phones Found Transferring "Unapproved, Undisclosed" Data
https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/google-sued-data-costs-after-android-phones-found-transferring-unapproved-undisclosed-data
https://regmedia.co.uk/2020/11/13/taylor-v-google.pdf
Case 5:20-cv-07956 Document 1 Filed 11/12/20
INTRODUCTION
1.Defendant Google LLC (“Google”) has a dirty little secret. It designed the Android operating system to collect vast amounts of information about users, which Google uses to generate billions in profit annually by selling targeted digital advertisements.
2.This case involves the application of long-standing common law principles to seek redress for Google’s secret appropriation of Android users’ cellular data allowances.
3.Much of this information-gathering by Google takes place without any action at allby Android device owners. While Plaintiffs’ Android devices are in their purses and pockets, and even while sitting seemingly idle on Plaintiffs’ nightstands as they sleep, Google’s Android operating system secretly appropriates cellular data paid for by Plaintiffs to perform “passive” information transfers which are not initiated by any action of the user and are performed without their knowledge.
4.Plaintiffs had no say in Google’s continual misappropriation of their cellular data allowances and remain largely powerless to stop it. Google designed its Android operating system and apps to prevent users from changing the settings to disable these transfers completely or to restrict them to Wi-Fi networks.
5.Plaintiffs at no time consented to these transfers, and were given no warning or option to disable them. Google has crafted its various terms of service and policies in ways that purport to create binding contracts with the users of its technologies. But Plaintiffs and other consumers purchased their Android devices with little choice but to accept Google’s terms and policies, which are contracts of adhesion.
6.These information transfers are not mere annoyances—they interfere with Plaintiffs’ property interests, depriving them of data for which they, not Google, paid
7.In addition to misappropriating Plaintiffs’ property, the passive transfers confer avaluable benefit to Google at Plaintiffs’ expense. Google sends and receives information without bearing the cost of transferring that information between consumers and Google.