Makers of privacy app Disconnect are suing Google

The makers of the Disconnect privacy app are suing Google with the European regulators. The American company claims that Google has wrongly banned the Android version of Disconnect from its Play Store. Google denies the allegations.

Disconnect, which was co-founded by a number of former Google employees and which, among other things, blocks ad trackers, alleges in its lawsuit against Google that the company twice deliberately removed its privacy app Disconnect Mobile from the Play Store because it presented an “existential threat”. ‘ forms the revenue of the internet giant. In doing so, Disconnect refers to the various ways of tracking that Google uses to map out the behavior of its users in detail. In his view, this would infringe Google’s privacy and, by banning Disconnect Mobile, would also unnecessarily expose users to the dangers of malware, The Intercept writes.

Google called the allegations unfounded. The company says it will ban all apps from the Play Store that affect the operation of other apps, according to Google, to the full satisfaction of almost all app developers. There would also be more than two hundred privacy-related apps in the Play Store that do meet the guidelines. In turn, Disconnect rejects this reasoning. It points to Ghostery’s App Control app that was allowed to remain in the Play Store because it would be less effective at blocking ad trackers.

The choice to file the lawsuit against Google in Europe and not in the US is deliberate: the EU has stricter privacy laws than the Americans. In addition, Google is still under an antitrust investigation.