The Supreme Court has blocked a class action against Google claiming breach of privacy. This could be mega. I need to understand if making a class action requires a proof of harm as I was of the view that a breach of rights was enough, although we have written the CFR out of our law via Brexit. As ever my notes …
- The Supreme Court page, an abstract, points at baillie
- The BBC reports, Supreme Court blocks mass iPhone claim against Google
- Lloyd vs Google: UK needs collective redress from the ORG
- Jim Killock comments on the surveillance precedents set by the case, and how it might come to bite google in the arse.
In the ORG blog they say,
It is worth noticing that this [i.e. the need to prove harm] is not the case anymore. The DPA 1998, which the ruling is based upon, was replaced by the UK GDPR and the DPA 2018, which are meant to give individuals’ control over how their personal data is used. The use of digital technologies and automation to take decisions over an increasing amount of life necessities means that having effective remedies over control of one’s personal data effectively determines whether we have any scrutiny over these processes. This also means that we cannot have human rights in the digital age without effective remedies over the loss of control of how our personal data is used. The retrospective analysis of the Supreme Court over this topic should not be applied to future cases, but taken as a view of the law in 2012.