ACCC loses privacy case against Google

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) has lost a court case against Google accusing the company of misleading consumers with an on-screen notification and changes to its privacy policy.

The ACCC had accused Google of engaging in misleading conduct by introducing changes in June 2016 that allowed Google to combine personal information in consumers’ Google accounts with information about their activity on non-Google sites if a consumer agreed to the notification.

The change meant that internet tracking data that had previously been kept separate from users’ Google accounts was now linked to users’ names and other personally identifying information.

The newly combined information was used to improve Google’s advertising business, previously called DoubleClick.

But the Federal Court dismissed the allegations, finding that the notification and associated changes to Google’s privacy policy were not misleading because they required users’ informed consent.

ACCC Acting Chair Delia Rickard said the regulator will now carefully consider the judgement before deciding whether to take any further action.

“Google’s conduct came to our attention as a result of our work on the Digital Platforms Inquiry. 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,” she said.

The proceedings were initiated in July 2020 against Google LLC as a subsidiary of Alphabet.

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