A Manchester law firm which specialises in data privacy claims said that it has started on-boarding clients for a probable class action suit against Microsoft and Google, firms that it believes are unlawfully collecting and using peoples’ data to train AI.
Barings Law has announced it is going after the tech giants for alleged myriad data misuses, including collecting extensive information about users’ voices, demographics, time spent on apps, contents of emails and personal details such as email addresses.
The law firm said that after almost two years of investigation, it had found that a large array of this data is being stored and potentially shared for the training and development of various AI large language models.
The firm’s recent findings sparked a national marketing campaign, with Barings Law targeting those with a Microsoft or Google account, as well as those who’ve used the services. The firm said that it expects to be inundated with thousands of sign-ups and plans to issue court proceedings at the beginning of 2025.
Users of platforms including YouTube, Gmail, Google Docs, LinkedIn, OneDrive, Outlook, Microsoft 365, and Xbox are being sought, including those who have used services like browsing history and map searches.
With such a large number of potential claimants the lawsuit would be one of the biggest legal cases in history against Big Tech firms, with reports indicating that there are more than 1.6 billion active Windows devices and over 1.8 billion Gmail users.
Barings Law, a firm specialising in cybersecurity cases, has experience in high-profile data breach cases, including the Capita cyber-attack, and the firm claims to have recently settled a high-profile data protection claim.
“This case is the Everest of data collection, but we are ready to fight for the right of secure privacy for Microsoft and Google users throughout the UK,” said Adnan Malik, Barings Law’s head of data breach.
“Both companies are collecting data such as the sports teams you follow, the programming languages you prefer, the stocks you track, your local weather or traffic, the route you take to work and what your voice sounds like.”
“Individuals have the right to know what data of theirs is being stored and what it is being used for. We know that it’s illegal to steal commodities like money, gold, or oil. As a society we cannot accept that it’s acceptable to steal the commodity of personal data.”
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In the US, OpenAI and Microsoft are being sued in a different class action lawsuit over allegations they violated the privacy of hundreds of millions of internet users by secretly scraping vast amounts of personal data to train an AI chatbot.
That lawsuit, filed on 28 June in federal court in San Francisco, seeks damages of $3 billion (£2.37 billion), however Malik clarified that while the cases may be similar, Barings Law is bringing legal action against Microsoft and Google, and not OpenAI.
In the UK, meanwhile, Google is facing another court challenge with the Competition Appeal Tribunal certifying this week that a £7 billion claim against the firm can proceed.
In that case, consumer rights campaigner Nikki Stopford has accused Google of exploiting its dominance in the search market to increase advertising costs, which were ultimately passed on to consumers.
