‘Google You Owe Us’ group wants legal action to continue in the ‘Safari workaround’ lawsuit

Lawyers behind a UK class-action style compensation litigation against Google for privacy violations have filed an application requesting permission to appeal against a recent High Court ruling blocking the proceeding, reports TechCrunch.

In October Justice Warby ruled the case couldn’t proceed on legal grounds, finding the claimants had not demonstrated a basis for bringing a compensation claim.

The case relates to the so-called “Safari workaround” and involves claimants who refer to themselves collectively as Google You Owe Us. The campaigning group was founded as a result of Google tricking Safari into revealing the personal data of iPhone users between June 2011 and February 2012. 

Google did this by bypassing default privacy settings on the iPhone’s Safari browser. The workaround tracked Internet browsing history, which Google then used to sell a targeted advertising service. Google You Owe Us wants to secure compensation for the nearly 5.4 million people in England and Wales believed to have been affected by the issue.