Australian Consumer watchdog launches Federal case against Google

• The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) has launched a federal case against tech-giant Google
• The ACCC alleges the American company failed to explicitly inform customers of a policy change in 2016
• It says Google coerced users into sharing more personal information under the guise of ‘making accounts easier to use’
• The ACCC also alleges that Google made this change to streamline advertising efforts, assisting a website called DoubleClick
• Google has defended its actions and says it will fight the case

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) has launched legal action against tech-giant Google following claims it deceived customers from 2016.

In a media release on Monday, the ACCC states Google coerced customers into sharing personal information — although the tech company wasn’t all too explicit about it.

“Google misled Australian consumers to obtain their consent to expand the scope of personal information that Google could collect and combine about consumers’ internet activity, for use by Google, including for targeted advertising,” the media release stated.

According to the Australian watchdog, Google did not properly inform customers when it sought to combine user information with Google-powered advertising website DoubleClick.

Instead of explicitly sharing its motives with users, Google instead told customers it was helping ‘combine’ their information for their own account’s benefit — making it easier for users to click an agreement button.

Google described the new features for its customers as “giving more control for relevant ads” and “making it easier for you to review and control [features].”

“This meant this data about users’ non-Google online activity became linked to their names and other identifying information held by Google,” the ACCC added. “Previously, this information had been kept separately from users’ Google accounts, meaning the data was not linked to an individual user”.

This change in policy will see the ACCC take the case to Federal Court. Specifically, the regulatory body will argue Google failed to properly inform consumers and Google did not gain explicit informed consent from consumers.

ACCC Chair Rod Sims criticised the actions used by Google to deceive consumers.

“We believe that many consumers, if given an informed choice, may have refused Google permission to combine and use such a wide array of their personal information for Google’s own financial benefit,” he said.

“The use of this new combined information allowed Google to increase significantly the value of its advertising products, from which it generated much higher profits,” Rod continued.

“The ACCC considers that consumers effectively pay for Google’s services with their data, so this change introduced by Google increased the price of Google’s services, without consumers’ knowledge,” he concluded.

This isn’t the first time the ACCC has launched action against Google. Last year, the Australian organisation went toe to toe with the tech-giant over its use of location data.

Google has already responded to the ACCC’s claims launched on Monday — saying it disagreed and will defend the case.

“In June 2016, we updated our ads system and associated user controls to match the way people use Google products across many different devices,” a Google spokesperson said.

“The changes we made were optional and we asked users to consent via prominent and easy-to-understand notification,” the spokesperson continued. “We have cooperated with the ACCC’s investigation into this matter.”