SAN FRANCISCO (Legal Newsline) - Google faces a class action lawsuit in federal court for allegedly invading people's privacy in its COVID-19 exposure notification system.
The complaint was filed by plaintiffs Jonathan Diaz and Lewis Bornmann on April 27 in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California.
Google and Apple created the Google-Apple Exposure Notification System (GAEN) to help state and local public health departments implement contact tracing.
The plaintiffs say that, although Google firmly states private consumer data is safe in the GAEN system, the sensitive information is exposed to any number of third parties that have access to the Google system logs.
According to the complaint, Google was informed in February that its GAEN system was flawed and could cause a breach of users' data, but the tech company has allegedly failed to inform its consumers that GAEN participants' personal medical information was exposed to third parties that access the system logs in the normal course of their business.
Third parties could include cell phone carries such as Verizon, Samsung, Motorola and T-Mobile.
Google is accused of invasion of privacy through public disclosure of private facts, intrusion upon seclusion, California Constitution violations and California Confidentiality of Medical Information Act violation.
The plaintiffs ask the court to order Google destroy the private medical records off their system logs and pay damages deemed fit.
The class is represented by Lieff Cabraser Heimann and Berinstein LLP of San Francisco.