Tag: settlement

Uber Fined $20,000 Over ‘God View’ Tool in the US

Uber’s ‘God View’ tool allowed employees to access and track the location of Uber drivers and customers without their permission or their knowledge. The company ran into trouble with the tool in 2014 when an Uber executive tracked the whereabouts of a Buzzfeed journalist while she was not aware of it.

When the issue was brought out in the public, required action was taken against the executive. The concerned executive explained the act by saying the reporter’s location was monitored because she was 30 minutes late for a meeting. Uber later declared the act to be one of “poor judgement”.However, the cat was out of the bag now and had attracted the attention of the lawmakers. What started in 2014 has now finally concluded with a $20,000 fine being imposed on Uber. The settlement was reached between the company and New York Defence Attorney General Eric Schneiderman yesterday.

The settlement also requires Uber to revise its privacy policy. Geolocation for both the driver and the customer would now be encrypted and password protected. Additionally, ‘God View’ would now be available only to a handful of employees, unlike before when a large number of them could use it. The use of the tool is justified only for “legitimate business purposes”, says the company.

January 7, 2016
Google Dodges Fine with EU Antitrust Deal

As The Wall Street Journal reports, Google has clinched a settlement in its high-profile case with European Union antitrust regulators to address concerns that it is abusing its dominance in online search.

EU Antitrust Commissioner Joaquin Almunia said that he’s “strongly convinced” the new proposals sufficiently address the competition concerns, marking a major milestone in the three-year-old case. “This is an important step forward,” he told reporters in Brussels.

Google had been accused of giving favourable treatment to its own products in search results. The company said it looked forward to resolving the matter.

As FT reports, on the European Commission’s side, there is still going to be a final approval process. The groups that filed the original complaint against Google will be consulted, but it will not be a formal “market test”. The commission will monitor whether Google sticks to its promises.

The agreement means the world’s dominant search engine has avoided a process that could have lead to a fine of up to $5 billion, or 10 percent of its 2012 revenue. It must stick to the deal for the next five years. Google has a market share of about 90 percent of Internet searches in Europe, compared with around 70 percent in the U.S.

However, Google may still face a second EU investigation, this time into its Android operating system for smartphones, with potentially bigger risks for the company.

February 5, 2014
Facebook To Pay $20M For Sponsored Stories Privacy Breaches

A U.S. judge has put a stamp of approval on a US$20 million fund for Facebook to settle a class-action advertising suit, despite objections from groups representing minors on the site.

The ruling was issued Monday in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California. The class-action suit, which was first filed in 2011, challenged Facebook’s “sponsored stories” advertising program. A sponsored story is a type of promoted post appearing in users’ feeds that may include the profile name and picture of Facebook members who have “liked” that advertiser’s products or services.

As Wired reports, “Sponsored Stories” basically turns the act of pressing the Facebook “Like” button into a potential commercial endorsement. If a Facebook user clicks the “Like” button for a product or service with a Facebook page, that user’s profile picture and name may be automatically used in advertisements for that product or service that appear in the their friends’ Facebook pages. Facebook also reserves the right to show such ads on sites other than Facebook.

U.S. District Judge Richard Seeborg in San Francisco approved the revised deal months after he said he had “serious concerns” because it originally provided a $10 million payout to attorneys suing Facebook and $10 million to activist and research groups in what is known as a cy pres award.

Under the new plan Seeborg approved, the same $20 million pot is to be shared by charities, the class-action attorneys and the 125 million U.S. Facebook users who appeared in a “Sponsored Story” without consent.

In a statement, a Facebook spokeswoman said the company was “pleased” that the settlement had received final approval.

August 27, 2013
Google To Pay $7 Million To U.S States As Street View Data Capturing Case Settlement

Google has agreed to pay a $7 million fine to settle claims from 37 states and the District of Columbia that the search giant improperly collected data from unsecured wireless networks across the United States using its “Street View” vehicles.

The announcement of the settlement is expected to be made by the states early next week, according to the person, though some of the final details of the deal were still being hammered out on Friday. Google has said the incident was a mistake.

A group of states, led by then-Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal, began the investigation into Google in 2010 after the company revealed that its fleet of Street View cars had inadvertently collected the data from unsecured wireless networks.

“While the 7 million dollars is significant, the importance of this agreement goes beyond financial terms,” Connecticut Attorney General George Jespen said after the settlement.

“Consumers have a reasonable expectation of privacy. This agreement recognizes those rights and ensures that Google will not use similar tactics in the future.”

As part of the settlement, Google said it would destroy the personal data it collected.

It has also removed the equipment and software used to collect the data from its Street View vehicles and will not collect additional information without prior notice and consent, the Attorney General of New York said in a statement.

It’s a relatively small sum for a company of Google’s size. To put the settlement in context, it’s a little more than the $6 million bonus that Google will pay Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt for his work at the company in 2012, according to a regulatory filing Tuesday.

Google will also provide a training program to its employees for 10 years about privacy and the confidentiality of user data, and will launch a public-service advertising campaign to educate consumers about keeping their personal information secure on Wi-Fi networks.

March 13, 2013