Hundreds join iPhone lawsuit against Google
HUNDREDS of British iPhone users yesterday piled into a class action lawsuit against Google that claims the company bypassed Apple security measures to track web habits.
Law firm Olswang is bringing the case against the web company, claiming that Google illegally installed tracking files – known as cookies – on products that use Apple’s Safari web browser during 2011 and 2012.
Olswang lawyers originally notified Google on behalf of 12 clients, but as news of the case spread yesterday, hundreds of people contacted the firm interested in becoming part of the class action. Around 50 people are believed to be in the formal process of joining the case, with lawyers expecting more this week.
With more than 10m people in the UK who own iPhones, iPads and Apple Macs – all of which run Safari – the case could balloon further.
Any settlement could cost Google tens of millions of pounds.
Google has not responded to the UK case, the first of its kind, but it was fined $22.5m (£14.3m) by US authorities over the incident last year. The US firm did not comment yesterday.