Black eye for the Google and class action rackets

Google Street View provides panoramic street-level pictures from across the world, which it obtained from special camera cars. Google: Whoops, our cars also took substantive info, like passwords, photos, and documents, transmitted over unencrypted Wi-Fi. Much litigation ensues. A class action covering 60 million people settles for $13 mil, with the money going to attorneys’ fees, various costs, and an assortment of nonprofits that promise to use the money “to promote the protection of Internet privacy”—and not a penny to the people whose privacy was violated. Ninth Circuit: That’s fine. Concurrence: It’s time for us to reconsider our precedent okaying monetary awards to third parties instead of damages for class members.

‌Short Circuit: A Roundup of Recent Federal Court Decisions.

Personal note: I stopped filling out class action claim forms decades ago. I have better things to do with my time than spend 30 minutes (guesstimate — may be high or low) on the off-chance of a scrap of carcass after the jackals have gotten the lion’s share (to mix a metaphor).

My main blog is the Tipsy Teetotaler, http://intellectualoid.com.