Google argues lawsuit concerning UK privacy should be brought in California
1–10 of 37 posts
Re: Google argues lawsuit concerning UK privacy should be brought in California
#2I think that headline is slightly misleading - Google is running an argument in court that as their service is supplied from the US then they can't be sued here in the UK.
If the courts decide otherwise then Google has quite a lot of assets here in the UK in the form of Google UK Limited - obviously tiny compared to the US parent but still a pretty substantial organization by any objective measure.
I tend to side with the claimants (I believe that is the correct term in England - it is pursuer here in Scotland) that as they have a .co.uk site and substantial operations here in the UK they should be directly subject to litigation in the UK. If they were a US only operation then fair enough - it would seem silly to sue them here in the UK, but they have long outgrown that status.
Re: Google argues lawsuit concerning UK privacy should be brought in California
#3"Lawyers for the search firm are expected to tell the judge that a similar privacy claim was recently struck out in the US and that no European regulators are currently investigating this issue."
I think Google's lawyer's need to return to school. Those statements are completely irrelevant to this case.
Re: Google argues lawsuit concerning UK privacy should be brought in California
#4I am tired of Google behaving like they are untouchable/above others.
Follow the rules everyone follows, you aren't above the law and certainly do not deserve to be treated as a special entity.
Pay your taxes, respect privacy and stop pretending to be saint.
Re: Google argues lawsuit concerning UK privacy should be brought in California
#5This is a no news article. No jurisdiction is pretty much move one in any dispute. The argument will be rejected and everything will continue on as normal, while the lawyers will be slightly richer.
There are cases in which the jurisdiction argument is valid, but it's made pretty much regardless.
Re: Google argues lawsuit concerning UK privacy should be brought in California
#6Google has been called "arrogant and immoral" - by whom? the plaintiff?!
Google is arguing about jurisdiction in front of a judge, why is the author doing publicity work for the plaintiff? and why is a routine legal argument news?
Re: Google argues lawsuit concerning UK privacy should be brought in California
#7> Judith Vidal-Hall, one of the claimants suing Google, said: "Google is very much here in the UK. It has a UK specific site. It has staff here. It sells adverts here. It makes money here. It is ludicrous for it to claim that, despite all of this very commercial activity, it won't answer to our courts."
That does sum up my view on it too.
If there is a case to answer, then given that Google are here in the UK then they are bound to operate within UK law and answer it.
We've long gone beyond the point at which we can pretend that there is no UK presence.
Re: Google argues lawsuit concerning UK privacy should be brought in California
#8Google has been called "arrogant and immoral" - by whom? the plaintiff?! Google is arguing about jurisdiction in front of a judge, why is the author doing publicity work for the plaintiff? and why is a routine legal argument news?
Because since the revelations about Google providing the NSA direct access to servers, they are extremely unpopular. Combine that with their reluctance to pax any form of tax, and they have the same public image as an arms dealer.
Re: Google argues lawsuit concerning UK privacy should be brought in California
#9Google has been called "arrogant and immoral" - by whom? the plaintiff?! Google is arguing about jurisdiction in front of a judge, why is the author doing publicity work for the plaintiff? and why is a routine legal argument news?
Because since the revelations about Google providing the NSA direct access to servers, they are extremely unpopular. Combine that with their reluctance to pax any form of tax, and they have the same public image as an arms dealer.
The increasing number of trolls on HN is the only real issue gleaned from this thread.
But if you're even remotely serious, and assuming for a second that what you wrote is true how does that justify shoddy journalism?
Re: Google argues lawsuit concerning UK privacy should be brought in California
#10I think that headline is slightly misleading - Google is running an argument in court that as their service is supplied from the US then they can't be sued here in the UK. If the courts decide otherwise then Google has quite a lot of assets here in the UK in the form of Google UK Limited - obviously tiny compared to the US parent but still a pretty substantial organization by any objective measure. I tend to side wit…
Begs the question, so what exactly does the Google UK office actually do again?!
Google "operates" in the UK, the second biggest market for advertising revenue yet manages to book their profits in Ireland because that's where their sales are "signed". Yet even that Dublin office has no profit as they have expenses to pay to the tune of billions in IP to a patent-holding Google subsidiary in Bermuda.
This must me a wake up call to quite a lot of people. It used to be that it was only poor countries that got shafted by foreign corporations (e.g. Dow Chemical, Bhopal disaster in India). Now, it's -gasp- happening to us too!