Google’s $13M Street View Settlement Valueless to Class, AGs Say

Thirteen states support an objector’s efforts to overturn approval of Google‘s $13 million settlement to resolve allegations that the tech giant used its Street View vehicles to intercept and store electronic communications transmitted over unsecured wireless internet connections.

Google’s March 2020 settlement duplicates injunctive relief already obtained by the states in a separate 2013 settlement and otherwise provides no remedy to class members, the attorneys general said in a friend-of-the court brief filed Wednesday in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.

They challenge the validity of Rule 23 cy pres-only settlements categorically, asserting that the appeals ...