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Google Buzz Target of New Class Action Lawsuit
Google Inc. is the subject of a class action lawsuit filed in the U.S. Federal Court in San Jose (California) on February 17. The suit was filed by the firm Audet & Partners LLP on behalf of all Gmail users whose accounts were automatically linked to the newly launched Google Buzz service. The claimants are seeking an injunction barring Google from launching similarly tailored services as well as unspecified monetary relief. The action follows a complaint to the Federal Trade Commission by the Electronic Privacy Information Center arguing that users should not be automatically linked to Buzz without their consent.
The class action alleges that Google breached, among other things, the U.S. Computer Fraud and Abuse Act when it launched Buzz. The service, which allows a user to keep other “followers” (or readers) up-to-date with short micro-blogging posts, similar to Twitter or Facebook’s news feed, automatically selected those followers from the list of people the user frequently emails. It then allows those followers, without the consent of the user, to see who else is following that user’s updates as well as view his photos and information shared through Google’s other services.
For additional information, visit:
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/techchron/detail?entry_id=57438