
US Appeals Court Voids Google Cookie Privacy Settlement That Paid Users Nothing - infodocket
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-alphabet-google-cookies/u-s-appeals-court-voids-google-cookie-privacy-settlement-that-paid-users-nothing-idUSKCN1UW23R
======
heyyyouu
This article doesn't say what the six organizations were, which is the main
contention of settlement (the fact that it was going to them, not what they
are). But in case you were curious: AARP, World Privacy Forum, Carnegie Mellon
University, Chicago-Kent College of Law, Harvard University and Stanford Law
School.

Here is an article about when the Supreme Court kicked the case back to the
Appellate court earlier this year, which goes a bit deeper into the legal
issues behind it: [https://www.geekwire.com/2019/seattle-area-att-employees-
bri...](https://www.geekwire.com/2019/seattle-area-att-employees-bribed-
install-phone-unlocking-malware-company-network-authorities-say/)

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AnimalMuppet
AARP? The American Association of Retired People? _They 're_ a "privacy
group"? Did I miss something?

~~~
squirrelicus
They're an everything group. The single most influential vote in the world.

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neilv
> _In a 3-0 decision, the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Philadelphia
> said it could not tell whether the $5.5 million settlement was fair,
> reasonable and adequate, and said a lower court judge should revisit the
> case._

That's a love-pat, figuratively coming out of petty cash.

> _had been accused of exploiting loopholes in Apple Inc’s Safari and
> Microsoft Corp’s Internet Explorer browsers to help advertisers bypass
> cookie blockers._

Circumventing/exploiting security measures/vulnerabilities, to gain
unauthorized access to a computer system, with intent to secretly violate the
privacy of large numbers of people?

> _He also called the awards to the privacy groups “particularly concerning.”_

Wouldn't it be better here for a privacy group to drop a dime (to federal
authorities), than to take the money?

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teachrdan
I'm not sure what you mean by "drop a dime" in this context. It usually means
calling the cops on someone, referencing a time long ago when making a call
from a pay phone cost ten cents.

[https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/drop_a_dime](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/drop_a_dime)

~~~
ilovetux
I think gp is referring to the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act which can lead to
criminal charges. IANAL, but I don't think this would really apply probably
because of Googles EULA.

~~~
jimktrains2
Do you have to option of seeing the Eula before the tracking is done?

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SilasX
Let's hope they do the same for Equifax, which, rounding to the nearest
dollar, did the same thing. ($31 million to 143 million victims.)

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harryh
That is not accurate.

$300 million of the settlement was designated to go to individuals who
suffered specific harms (identity theft, etc) due to the breach.

And additional 31 million was designated to go to other people who's
information was stolen but didn't suffer additional harms due to the theft.

~~~
dmix
It turned out to be around $125 per person for the latter group.

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rolltiide
Tl;dr A group that litigated the case got all the settlement money, by design.
Supreme Court is telling lower courts to curb stomp this practice.

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jasongill
This wasn't a decision by the Supreme Court, so nothing was "curb stomped"
here

~~~
rolltiide
oh that was a separate settlement of the same type, regarding Google, which
had reached the Supreme Court, my bad.

