High Court blocks iPhone data breach suit against Google

The UK's High Court has blocked a mass legal action court case against Google, which claimed the tech giant had collected sensitive information from over 4m iPhone users.

The tech giant faced claims that it circumvented the privacy settings installed on Apple's iPhone Safari browser between August 2011 and February 2012, using a method known as the Safari Workaround,  with the intention of using data to separate users into easily distinguishable categories for advertisers.

However Justice Warby, who oversaw the case, today found that while there is "no dispute" against the argument Google was wrongful in obtaining data this way, the claims that people suffered "damage" from the workaround were not sufficiently evidenced. Additionally, he said it would be impossible to reliably calculate the number of iPhone users affected.

The case was spearheaded by a campaign group known as Google You Owe Us, led by former Which? chief Richard Lloyd.

Lloyd said the group, which had 20,000 sign-ups, plans to seek permission to appeal the High Court's decision.

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"Today’s judgement is extremely disappointing and effectively leaves millions of people without any practical way to seek redress and compensation when their personal data has been misused," he said in a statement. 

"Google’s business model is based on using personal data to target adverts to consumers and they must ask permission before using this data. The court accepted that people did not give permission in this case yet slammed the door shut on holding Google to account."

The case had its first hearing in May, where the prosecution told the court that Google had collected personal information on users including their race, physical and mental health, shopping habits and political affiliations or opinions.

A Google spokesperson said: "The privacy and security of our users is extremely important to us. This claim is without merit, and we're pleased the Court has dismissed it."

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The Telegraph had previously reported the claim could have resulted in a compensation payout of up to £3.3bn from the search giant. Lawyers for Lloyd told Warby that Google had already paid out $39.5m (£30.3m) to settle similar claims in the US.

Google's parent company Alphabet was fined a record-breaking $5bn in July by the EU's competition watchdog over "serious illegal behaviour" with its Android operating system, where regulators concluded Google had forced operators to use Android over other services.