Reuters has reported that Google has agreed to settle a $350 million dollar lawsuit by shareholders regarding a security issue with its former social media website known as Google+.
A preliminary settlement was filed late on Monday in the San Francisco federal court following years of mediation and requires approval from US District Judge Trina Thompson.
It settles claims that in March of 2018, Google had learned about a three-year-old software glitch that disclosed a user's data but the issue was placed under wraps for months while the company simultaneously emphasized its commitment to data security to the public.
The Lawsuit
The report states that shareholders have said that Google feared that the disclosure of this issue would subject it to both regulatory and public scrutiny. Akin to what Facebook, now under META, faced following London-based Cambridge Analytica had collected its users data for the 2016 elections. According to the complaint shares of Google's parent company Alphabet had fallen several times resulting in billions of dollars lost in market value. The lawsuit is being spearheaded by James Diossa, a Rhode Island Treasurer on behalf of a state pension fund that owed Alphabet stock and covers shareholders from April 23rd, 2018 to April 30th, 2019.
Google themselves has pushed back against any wrongdoing and is agreeing to settle but also states that they found no evidence that the data was being misused. In a statement from spokesperson Jose Castaneda, the following was said "We regularly identify and fix software issues, disclose information about them, and take these issues seriously. This matter concerns a product that no longer exists and we are pleased to have it resolved." However, the company settled another similar issue with Google+ users for $7.5 million back in 2020.
The report also states that shareholders might pursue up to $66.5 million from the settlement fees according to court documents. The settlement on Monday was disclosed just five and a half weeks after the company settled another lawsuit stating that the company was secretly tracking the use of millions of users who were under the impression that they were browsing privately. However, details of that settlement have not been disclosed at the time of writing.
Instances such as these might explain the rise of more private web browsers as well as VPNs as it's becoming more and more clear that companies are tracking the data of their users.
