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Court Dismisses ACCC Case Against Google

The Federal Court has dismissed the ACCC’s case against Google and an allegedly misleading privacy policy it showed to Australian users.

The ACCC had alleged that an on-screen notification showed to Australian Google users was misleading because it did not adequately inform consumers about changes to the tech giant’s privacy policy, changes which expanded the scope of its use and collection of personal data.

In June 2016, Google introduced these privacy changes. If users clicked ‘I agree’ in response to the aforementioned notification, Google would ” combine personal information in consumers’ Google accounts with information about their activity on non-Google sites that used Google technology (formerly called DoubleClick technology) to display ads,” according to the ACCC.

“This meant that internet tracking data that had previously been kept separate from users’ Google accounts and was not linked to an individual user, was now linked to users’ names and other identifying information.”

The ACCC also claimed these changes reduced the rights of account holders’ “without obtaining their explicit consent.”

The Court ruled this wasn’t misleading as Google sought the consent of account holders, and only did so with “their informed consent”.

The notice shown to users is below.

The ACCC instituted proceedings against Google in July 2020.

“Google’s conduct came to our attention as a result of our work on the Digital Platforms Inquiry,” ACCC Acting Chair Delia Rickard said.

“We took this case because we were concerned that Google was not adequately providing consumers with clear and transparent information about how it collects and uses consumer data.

“We will now carefully consider the judgment.”

 



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