What’s your personal information worth? According to a California judge, probably not as much as you might think. .In a victory for privacy advocates, Google has settled a class action lawsuit for failing to disclose how personal data is used through its ubiquitous search engine..Philadelphia-based Kroll Settlement Administration announced Google has agreed to pay users who clicked on a search link anytime between Oct. 25, 2006 and Sept. 30, 2013..Under a class action lawsuit called In re Google Referrer Header Privacy Litigation, Case No. 5:10-cv-4809-EJD filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, the plaintiffs accuse the Silicon Valley giant of improperly “storing and intentionally, systematically and repeatedly divulging” queries and search histories with third-party websites in violation of its own privacy policies..In a release, Kroll said Google denies any wrongdoing and the court has not decided who is right or wrong. .“Defendants are entering into this settlement to avoid burdensome and costly litigation and to focus on timely addressing consumer complaints,” it said..Google will also be required to revise its 'FAQs' and 'Key Terms' webpages to include “conspicuous, clear and concise explanations” of how and when search queries may be disclosed to third parties via referrer headers. .Under the settlement, Google will pay US$23 million including attorney’s fees, litigation costs and settlement administration costs — which were undisclosed — to Google users and anyone who could bring any of the claims in the lawsuit on behalf of these users of Google Search, such as representatives, heirs and administrators..Anyone who used Google in that time period is eligible for an award of up to $5,000. However, the only way to be eligible is to file a claim in writing to the administrator in New York City, postmarked no later than July 31. .The court has scheduled a ‘final approval hearing’ in San Jose on Oct. 12 when the applicable legal fees and costs, which amount to a maximum of 25% of the settlement, will be disclosed. .The kicker?.Google processes about 100,000 searches a second, or nearly 9 billion requests a day. Doing some basic math, that would potentially leave hundredths of a cent per user..On a special website, Kroll said the number of representatives who have made claims to date are owed $8.08 if they are approved. “This estimate is subject to change as additional data is received. Please continue to check this website for the most recent updates to the estimate,” it said..Last year, Facebook’s parent company Meta agreed to pay $725 million in a similar class action over its own handling of user data over a 16-year period..The deadline to file a claim for that one is Aug. 23 and only US residents are eligible.
