Google Sued For Tracking Users' Locations 266
RedEaredSlider writes "Two Android phone users are suing Google for $50 million in the wake of revelations that their phones might be tracking their locations. The lawsuit, filed in the US District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan on April 27, is seeking class-action status. The plaintiffs, Julie Brown and Kayla Molaski, are residents of Oakland County. The two say in the suit that Google's privacy policy did not say that the phones broadcast their location information. Further, they say Google knew that most users would not understand that the privacy policy would allow for Google to track users' locations."
Apple was sued for their location tracking last week. According to Boy Genius Report, iOS tracking will be addressed in version 4.3.3, which is due out within a couple weeks.
Re:good (Score:4, Interesting)
Dear ALL FREAKING BUSINESSES: (Score:2, Interesting)
STOP MONETIZING ME! I am not a data goldmine for you to rape at your convenience! Sell me the product that I want (NOT the product you think I need, or the Trojan Horse product that gets you access to my information) and then STEP OFF.
Re:good (Score:4, Interesting)
this mandatory "give phone makers your location all the time" thing has got to be put down.
Unless a CARRIER modified some app or service on the phone, Google is VERY clear about their location aware services, and allow enabling or disabling them. Thus, (a) either these people are idiots, or (b) they need to sue the CARRIER who fucked with the software to hide the location awareness aspects. Either way, Google is not the issue here.
Re:There's a key difference here. (Score:4, Interesting)
This "anonymized information" still contains the unique device ID of your phone that gets only reset when you do a factory reset of your phone. AdMob (by Google) submits this unique device ID as well as the carrier user ID along with your location data every time you view an ad.
Come on, this is just too much information.