The decision to not take further action against the tech giant was announced today by High Court Judge Mark Warby.

The case was brought against Google by campaign group Google You Owe Us, led by Richard Lloyd, former Director of Which?.

The action, believed to be the first mass legal action of its kind in the UK, sought at least £1 billion in compensation for those users who were tracked by Google for several months.

The group accused Google of bypassing iPhone privacy settings between August 2011 and February 2012. It was alleged that cookies were used by the company to track users and thereby circumnavigate Apple’s Safari browser that blocks such monitoring.

Google Accused of Selling Users’ Data to Advertisers

The campaign claims that Google used the pilfered data to categorise users into different groups, which it then sold on to advertisers. Lawyers for Lloyd told the court that details such as ethic origin, physical and mental health, political affiliations, opinions, sexuality and sexual interests, shopping habits and social class were gathered.

Hugh Tomilnson QC, who represented Lloyd, asserted that the data, which was gathered through “clandestine tracking and collation”, was linked to information relating to internet usage on iPhone users’ Safari browser – known as the Safari workaround.

Lloyd Plans to Appeal Ruling

Warby, who oversaw the case, explained that his decision to block the action was due to the allegations that people suffered damage not being supported by the facts put forward by the campaign group. He added that it would be impossible to calculate the number of iPhone users affected by the alleged privacy breach.

Lloyd said in a statement: “Today’s judgement is extremely disappointing and effectively leaves millions of people without any practical way to seek redress and compensation when their personal data has been misused.”

In response to the favourable ruling, Google said: “The privacy and security of our users is extremely important to us. This claim is without merit, and we’re pleased the court has dismissed it.”

Previously, the California-based company paid $39.5 million in the US to settle a similar case, which also accused the Google of illicit data-gathering.