August 9, 2013 - In a statement signifying disregard for the concept of national sovereignty, Google has informed British consumers taking legal action against it that UK laws do not apply to them and that they do not have to respond to any requests from English courts to appear in front of them.
The campaign group, Safari Users Against Google’s Secret Tracking, claim that Google circumvented privacy settings in the integrated ‘Safari’ web browser that comes pre-installed on all models of iPhones and iPads made by Apple and continued to track users’ online activity even after ‘cookies’ were turned off and all security levels were at their highest possible level.
By default, Apple prevents websites such as Google to install small files like cookies to track online behavior, but software engineers at Google found a way around Apple’s filters.
This security breach was first exposed by a student and researcher at Stanford University who published his findings in the United States. On the basis of these findings, the US Federal Trade Commission found Google guilty of violating relevant laws and fined the company a record $22.5 million while saying “all companies must... keep their privacy promises to consumers, or they will end up paying many times what it would have cost to comply in the first place”.
Google claims that as its consumer services are provided by Google Inc, based in Silicon Valley, California, rather than Google UK, it is an American company and there is “no jurisdiction” for the case to be heard in Britain and that any lawsuits against it should be filed within the United States.
This move sets off an alarming precedent and raises questions about the millions of users who use popular consumer websites run by Microsoft and Facebook, who provide their services through local subsidiaries and therefore could potentially make the same argument were they to run afoul of the law.
One of the claimants, Marc Bradshaw, believes that Google is simply trying to avoid responsibility for its actions.
“It seems to us absurd that consumers can’t bring a claim against a company which is operating in the UK and is even constructing a $1 billion headquarters in London,” he stated.
