In a case that has been going on since back in 2012, Google has gotten what appears to be a final decision from Federal district court Judge, Paul Singh Grewal. The plaintiffs were hoping to get class action status based on their accusations that Google was gathering data and using it across multiple divisions as well as disclosing it to third parties.
The case has been going back and forth for some time with some significant delays along the way. The judge, however, has finally found that the plaintiffs did not show how “Google’s co-mingling of data deprived them of the economic value of their information.”
This is a significant victory for Google, especially since the search giant and other tech firms have been losing privacy battles in the courts around the world. This case is in American courts, and may show that they are on safer ground here in the US than in Europe, where they are constantly being told that they can’t gather data in the ways that they have been.
In addition to being a positive for Google, the case could help some marketers rest more comfortably. Many marketers use data that is gathered on their own sites or from third parties (such as Google) to improve their targeting.
