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Google Seeks To Throw Out UK Safari Tracking Suit
judgecorp writes "In the latest twist to the saga of Google's tracking of Safari users, the tech giant has asked to have a U.K. lawsuit dismissed. Google says it is bound by California laws, so plaintiffs will have to come to the U.S. and sue there. Law firm Olswang is bringing the suit on behalf of British users whose Safari browser settings were overridden to help Google target ads; it argues that international organizations should respect the laws that apply where their customers live."
Consistent with their tax stance, at least. :-)
Ironically Google stood alone in fighting China and refused to censor...
That is quite an interesting rewriting of history. Google was censoring the results on the mainland China page starting in 2006 up until to 2010. They only stopped censoring in Jan 2010 in response to the Chinese hack attack against them
UK safari tracking suit?
Bullshit. You're still a thief even if my house happened to be unlocked at the time.
A lot of people seeing this sort of case ask a question like: can Google really decide where lawsuits must be filed?
I don't know the law about this in England, but in Belgium it seems the answer is: if the judge finds it not to be abusive.
In a case like this, where the "injured" party is financially small and the amount of damages per injured party will also be small, I wouldn't be surprised if Google's clause was found inapplicable.
But as I said, I don't know the relevant law in England. Just saying that besides yes and no, the answer could also be "it depends".
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We see what happens when patent trolls are permitted to establish the venue for trial. East Texas, baby! The judges are in our pocketses, Precious!
As has already been pointed out, no contract trumps the law. No law permits you to effectively strip me of my rights by making it difficult (or possibly even impossible) to get to the court of your choosing. No law allows one court jurisdiction to rule the world. Google cannot write any contract or EULA that trumps British law.
They MIGHT be able to introduce California law into cases heard in Great Britain. I say, they MIGHT. They would have to argue the case, point by point, and wait for decisions on each point, to be made by the judge in the case, IN BRITAIN!!
Screw all those pencil necked needle dick freaks in corporate lawyer suits.
That said, I tend to side with Google, because, most of the time they are more right than other corporations. It's to bad that Google can't understand that unwanted tracking is unethical and immoral. To bad they don't understand that it should be illegal as well. If you want to track me, but I object, go get a warrant from a judge.
Wait, what? Google has no standing with which to get a warrant?
Case closed.
"Windows is like the faint smell of piss in a subway: it's there, and there's nothing you can do about it." - Charlie Br
I'm generally a fan of Google, but in this case they're way off base and should just admit they're wrong and pay the fine.