Britain's Information Commissioner Steps Into Google Privacy Breaches Legal Action

Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOGL) closed lower by -1.99% to $521.51. Google Inc., a technology organization, builds products and provides services to organize the information. The organization offers Google Search, which provides information online; Knowledge Graph that allows searching for things, people, or places, as well as builds systems that recognize speech and understand natural language; Google Now, which provides information to users when they need it; and Product Listing Ads that offer product image, price, and merchant information.

On December 5, 2014, The UK's privacy regulator, the Information Commissioner, is to make a dramatic final hour intervention in an English Court of Appeal hearing in which Google will seek, once again, to prevent customers from suing it in England . In its legal filings Google argues that if customers do not lose out financially from a privacy breach, they should not be allowed to sue it.

Google has argued that a decision in January by High Court Judge, Mr Justice Tugendhat , to allow the customers to sue the organization in England was wrong, as there is "no serious issue to be tried" given that the "alleged incursion into the private life by [Google's] use of cookies does not reach a level of seriousness to engage Article 8 [of the Human Rights Act 1998]". It argues that the claim lacks merit as customers suffered no financial harm.

Marc Bradshaw , one of three claimants in the case, welcomed the Information Commissioner's intervention: "We are delighted to see this action by the Commissioner. We've written to his Office several times urging him to get engaged and help British consumers to protect their right to privacy. Google may be a massive organization with huge resources, but it must treat consumers with respect by abiding by their wishes and not abusing their right to privacy. We truly hope that the Information Commissioner will witness for himself in court Google's vast array of technical and legal excuses for its actions and its desperate attempts to avoid answering to English courts. Then he will realise that he must act to prevent any further wrongdoings by this monopolistic giant. Every citizen of this country has privacy rights and Google infringes those fundamental rights whether it costs us cash or not. It's typical for Google to argue that it's all about money. "

Next Monday, Google will call on the Court of Appeal to dismiss the case, which is being brought by three members of the Google Governance Campaign as a test case.  170 potential claimants have registered interest, and millions of Apple users across the world could potentially have a claims.