Australian court: Google was not misleading about using user data

The Australian federal court has dismissed a lawsuit against Google. The case was brought by the Australian Competition & Consumer Commission (ACCC), which alleged that Google was not clear about using user data for targeted advertising.

The Australian consumer watchdog reports that the federal judge has dismissed the lawsuit against Google. The ACCC filed the lawsuit in 2020. Google would not have clearly informed users about the use of user data for advertising purposes.

Starting in 2016, the company began combining the personal information in Google accounts with activity from those accounts on sites that use Google’s technology to serve ads. This allows advertisements to be displayed that match the interests of the user. However, the user must give explicit permission for this. According to the ACCC, consumers were insufficiently aware of what they were giving their consent for. The consumer watchdog also claims that the changes to the privacy policy limit the rights of account holders without their explicit consent.

The federal court disagreed. He ruled Friday that the notice and changes to the privacy policy were not misleading. Google had asked the users for their explicit consent to implement the changes and informed them sufficiently about the changes. The judge points out that the notification requesting permission was provided with links. These led to pages with information about the privacy and advertising policies.

According to the judge, the ACCC was also unable to prove that the privacy policy limits the rights of users. Therefore, the lawsuit is dismissed and the consumer watchdog must pay Google’s costs incurred in the case, writes The Canberra Times. Google says it is satisfied with the court’s ruling. The ACCC says it is “carefully studying the judge’s verdict.”