Google has agreed to pay $8.5 million (US) to settle a privacy lawsuit filed over its Buzz social networking service, and as usual only the lawyers are going to get rich on this one. The exact terms of the settlement are still pending approval from a federal court judge, but for a company that is earning $6.5-$7 billion per quarter we are guessing they probably won’t lose too much sleep over it.
The proposed settlement involves 30 percent of the funds being set aside to cover legal fees, and the seven named plaintiffs receiving approximately $2,500 each. The remainder of the cash will be earmarked for organizations devoted to Internet privacy policy or education. Google has also been asked to do more to help educate the public about the privacy of Buzz, something Google claims has already been done.
A legal ruling against the search giant is a bit of a black eye for its “do no evil†company motto, but we are guessing the whole Buzz thing in general didn’t go over as well as they had hoped.
Related posts:
- Global privacy leaders to Google: We hope Buzz taught you a lesson
- Google adjusts Buzz setup for privacy, makes ‘public’ choice more obvious
- Google to Simplify Privacy Policy
- Canada curious about Google Buzz, EPIC accuses Google of deception
- Launching Today: Google Buzz, a Gmail-Integrated Twitter Killer
