SEOHost.Net Principal: Recent BIPA Lawsuit against Google Shows Privacy is More Critical than Ever

Terry Cane, COO of global SSL service domain registration and SEO hosting provider SEOHost.net, spoke on the outcome of a recent class-action lawsuit against Google.

Tied to Google’s Photos app, the suit alleged that the company violated the Biometric Information Privacy Act, which prohibits the use and collection of biometric data without full transparency and explicit, written consent. According to the lawsuit, Google collected biometric identifiers from the faces of its users without fulfilling any of the BIPA requirements. The case reached a $100 million settlement, roughly $40 million of which will go to the prosecuting law firm.

Approximately 1.4 million people may choose to submit a claim until September 24, 2022, for a projected maximum payout of $400 each.

“Realistically, this BIPA case was little more than a slap on the wrist for Google, even though it was one of the largest BIPA payouts to date,” muses Cane. “I suspect it’s more of a symbolic victory — proof that no one is above accountability in cases like this. It also speaks to a growing trend I’ve noticed in recent years. ”

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“It has become increasingly clear that the marketing sector will inevitably be defined by conversations and conflicts over privacy,” she continues. “This lawsuit is just the latest in a long chain, and one which is inevitably reshaping the face of the industry. As marketing professionals, we can no longer afford to simply ignore privacy or willfully violate it in an effort to gain more information about an audience—we need to connect with our target audience without being invasive about it.”

Cane points to Google’s decision to retire tracking cookies by 2023 as further evidence of this.

“There is little doubt in my mind that Google sees the writing on the wall, as it were,” Cane continues. “There was a time when privacy wasn’t front-of-mind for most. But whether as a consequence of the pandemic or of recent scandals involving social media, those days are long behind us.”