Oracle faces a mass claim in a Californian court. According to the plaintiffs, Oracle violates the privacy of billions of Internet users worldwide. The claim is based on violations of federal, state, antitrust and common laws in the United States.
The mass claim was filed on behalf of a large portion of the world’s population, TechCrunch writes. Three individuals lead the case: Dr. Johnny Ryan, senior fellow of the Irish Council for Civil Liberties (ICCL), Michael Katz-Lacabe, director of research at The Center for Human Rights and Privacy, and Dr. Jennifer Golbeck, professor of computer science at the University of Maryland.
Since the lack of federal privacy laws makes it difficult to build a case around privacy in the United States, the indictment against Oracle includes various violations of the Federal Electronic Communications Privacy Act, the Constitution of the State of California, the California Invasion of Privacy Act, antitrust law and common law.
‘Surveillance machine’
The plaintiffs’ goal is to get Oracle to stop what they see as mass data collection and usage for its own gain. According to the plaintiffs, no company should be able to track the world population’s locations and activities. The “surveillance machine” must end, as described by the plaintiffs.
Oracle is accused of surveilling five billion people worldwide. The tech giant allegedly collects large amounts of data without consent from unknown Internet users
Oracle is said to use this data to create user profiles, further enriching them through its data marketplace and thereby threatening the privacy of people on an enormous scale. Oracle also allegedly circumvents proxies in order to collect and use sensitive data.
Claims in Europe
The lawsuit against Oracle isn’t unique. In recent years, Oracle was sued in Europe for alleged privacy violations in the Netherlands and the United Kingdom.
In 2020, Oracle and Salesforce faced a Dutch claim by the Privacy Collective for allegedly violating the privacy of millions of Dutch and British citizens. In late 2021, the case was declared inadmissible by the Amsterdam court. The Privacy Collective declared that it would appeal near the end of March 2022.
Tip: Collective accusing Oracle and Salesforce of privacy violations to appeal
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