Google allows Android app vendors to illegally collect user data, lawsuit alleges

Several users of devices running Google's Android operating system have filed an amended version of an earlier lawsuit accusing the company of illegally collecting, and allowing others to collect, extensive amounts of mobile user data without proper notice or consent.

The lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, is an updated version of a consolidated lawsuit from January 2012. It alleged that Google's actions had harmed the privacy, security and financial interests of the six named plaintiffs in the case. U.S. District Court Judge Jeffrey White, who reviewed the original complaint from last year, had rejected it this March. In his ruling, the judge noted that the plaintiffs had failed to clearly state how Google's actions had caused injury to them as defined under the federal Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, the California Unfair Competition Law and a handful of other state statutes. Judge White had offered the plaintiffs an opportunity to file an amended complaint if they chose to do so.