London: Search giant Google would now be tried in the UK for allegations that it illegally tracked users bypassing privacy settings in Apple`s Safari browser.
A group of British Google users launched the legal action in 2013 saying that the search giant had illegally tracked their online activity between summer 2011 and spring 2012.
According to the BBC, Google argued that case should not be heard in the UK, while High Court Judge Michael Tugendhat ruled that UK was the `appropriate` jurisdiction and said that the case could proceed.
One of the claimants, Judith Vidal-Hall, said that Google would now have to explain its actions to other claimants regarding what it did with their private data, how much they made from it and why does the search giant keeps on flouting privacy laws.
However, a Google spokesperson said that it would appeal the ruling, adding that a case almost identical to this one was dismissed in its entirety three months ago in the US and the company believed that this case doesn`t meet the standards required in the UK for it to go to trial.
The search giant has been embroiled in a lot of privacy-related controversies including one case claiming that its live mapping service Google Street View allegedly collected user`s private data via public Wi-Fi.
Google, along with other Internet giants and telecom companies, has been found to be allegedly involved in the mega surveillance operations carried out by the US spy agency National Security Agency that led to a trend of periodic transparency report releases by these companies, quoting the number of user data requests made by the government.
