The privacy regulator of the United Kingdom, the information commissioner, for some reason decided to intervene in a Court of Appeal case, where the tech giant is seeking to argue that UK consumers can’t sue it.
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The action will consider a UK High Court decision to allow Google to be sued in the country for exploiting security flaws to track Apple’s devices for targeted advertising. The lawsuit in question is brought on behalf of about a hundred of UK citizens. However, it they win the case, this could open Google up to claims from millions more who were using Apple devices 4 years ago.

The UK information commissioner, Christopher Graham, made a submission in advance of the hearing, where he pointed out that there are serious issues to be tried about whether the information generated by Internet browsing can be deemed personal and whether personal damage may include non-monetary harm.

The tech giant is currently seeking to dismiss the case on the basis of the “lack of a serious issue to be tried”. Back in the beginning of 2014, the decision of the High Court set a legal precedent, creating a new form of legal harm in the form of misuse of personal information. The ruling also said that the courts of the United Kingdom were the appropriate jurisdiction for the hearing.

It should be noted that a similar case brought in the US was dismissed late last year, and this is what Google points at when appealing the UK ruling. In the meantime, the representatives of the claimants announced they are very pleased that the information commissioner has intervened in the hearing, because all the sides of the conflict admit it’s a crucial test of whether the tech company can be sued in the UK courts or whether there is only justice for a privacy breach where people lose money.