Brave, a cryptocurrency-powered internet browser, has filed a lawsuit accusing Google of running an “internal data-free-for-all” in breach of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).

Johnny Ryan, chief policy and industry relations officer at Brave, said in a blog post that no information could be obtained from Google about what is done with users’ data.

Ryan went up to say:

“Google’s internal data free-for-all enabled it to create a cascading monopoly. But it is now acutely vulnerable to GDPR Article 5(1)b enforcement.” “Brave’s new evidence reveals that Google reuses our personal data between its businesses and products in bewildering ways that infringe the purpose limitation principle.”

Brave published a study titled ‘Inside the Black Box’ which reveals that Google collects personal data for “integrations with websites, apps, and operating systems, for hundreds of ill-defined processing purposes.”

However, Google denied the accusations. Its spokesperson said:

“These repeated allegations from a commercial competitor don’t stand up to serious scrutiny.”

“Twenty million users visit their Google Accounts each day to make choices about how Google processes their data. Our privacy policy and the explanations we provide users are clear about how data is stored and the choices users have,” he added.

Ravi Naik, data privacy lawyer of AWO Legal, has submitted Ryan’s complaint to the Irish data regulator, which supervises Google’s business in Europe. He pointed to an illustration in Google’s privacy policy that says data collected in different systems would “allow us to develop new ones.”

Naik said:

“The consequences of that are, how can I exercise my right to object or to erasure? I do not know what data is going in to develop new services, and I cannot object to my data being used when I have no idea what they are building”.

Google accused of misusing personal data

In January 2019, Brave and others filed a complaint accused Google of misusing personal information of people in highly sensitive ways. Google’s ad technology classifies users by Internet activity, using signs like cancer, mental health, right or left policies, or even sexually transmitted diseases.

Brave appears to be gaining in popularity, exceeding four million users a day.

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