Lawsuit of the week: Google faces class action in B.C. over alleged unlawful data collection

Vancouver resident Kipling Warner is suing Google LLC in a proposed class action for alleged privacy violations after news broke that Android smartphones collect location data on users even when “location services” are shut off and SIM cards are removed.

Warner filed a notice of civil claim under the Class Proceedings Act on November 28 in BC Supreme Court.

“Google collects, uses, retains and commercialises [sic] the location data it takes from users, and profits from it,” the claim states. “Google’s wrongful acts violated the Privacy Act ... and unjustly enriched it at the expense of users. Through this suit, Canadian users seek to hold Google accountable for this unlawful conduct.”

Warner claims he owns a Samsung Galaxy S4 that runs Google’s Android operating system and had the phone’s location services feature disabled. He claims that in 2017, the internet behemoth “began a program of mass user surveillance.” The data, according to the lawsuit, enabled Google to monitor and identify users’ movements and locations.

“Google’s decision to collect the Location Data was planned and deliberate, and was made knowing that users had not consented to, and were not aware of, its collection,” the claim states.

In turn, Kipling claims, Android users’ privacy was violated and the data collection could allegedly facilitate “surveillance by hackers or undesireable state actors” while people who need their locations kept secret such as victims of abuse, journalists and confidential sources, or undercover police officers, are under “increased risk of personal harm from disclosure,” the claim states.

Kipling seeks an order certifying the suit as a class proceeding, damages for breach of the Privacy Act, and “disgorgement of all benefits received by Google attributable to the unauthorised [sic] collection, retention, and use of the Location Data.”

The allegations have not been tested in court, and Google had not filed a response by press time.