3 VPPA Class Actions vs. Google Are Consolidated Into 1 in San Jose

Google creates and possesses a “digital dossier on millions of consumers,” detailing the rental histories of viewing activity on Google Play, Google TV, Android TV, YouTube and YouTube TV, in violation of the Video Privacy Protection Act and Minnesota and New York privacy statutes, alleged a consolidated amended class action Friday (docket 4:22-cv-05652) in U.S. District Court for Northern California in San Jose. The new complaint is an amalgamation of three similarly structured class actions, and it adopts the docket number of the first-filed case Sept. 30 by plaintiff Burke Minahan in Oakland. The two other class actions that followed were filed Oct. 4 by Moshe Torczyner (docket 5:22-cv-05713) in San Jose (see 2210070014) and Nov. 22 by David Landfair and Samuel Gershman (docket 5:22-cv-7427) in San Jose. In “direct contravention” of the protections afforded to consumers in Minnesota and New York, Google retains its video-viewing records “indefinitely,” said the complaint. The personally identifiable information (PII) records it maintains include “a detailed account of the specific video materials and services each consumer requested or obtained,” it said. Google doesn't destroy consumers’ PII “as soon as practicable,” it said. “Google does not even destroy consumers’ PII within one year from the date the information is no longer necessary for the purpose for which it was collected.”