High Court Could Shoot Down Google Settlement on Standing (1)

The justices of the U.S. Supreme Court couldn’t get past standing issues raised by a $8.5 million privacy settlement between Google and consumers at oral argument Oct. 31.

Eight of the nine justices asked questions about standing. Justice Clarence Thomas remained silent, as usual.

If the court holds that Google users weren’t actually injured by Google’s practice of disclosing their search terms to third-party websites, it could resolve the case without getting to the class settlement issue that brought it to the court.

Under the deal, consumer privacy education and research programs would get $5.3 million of the settlement fund ...