If you owned an iPhone five years ago, you could potentially be owed hundreds of pounds in compensation.
A campaign group called 'Google You Owe Us' is taking search engine giant Google to court, claiming company collected data from their iPhones without consent between the months of June 2011 and February 2012.
If successful, the class action-style lawsuit could result in each claimant being paid up to £500 in compensation - it would be the largest bill ever paid to UK consumers.
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The campaign is being led by Richard Lloyd, a former government advisor and executive director of the consumer group Which?
It alleges that Google bypassed default privacy settings on customers' iPhones and installed cookies on the Safari browser in order to collect personal data. This has been dubbed the "Safari Workaround".
The campaign believes this was in violation of Section 4 of the Data Protection Act 1998 which aims to protect consumers' rights regarding their personal data.
"I believe that what Google did was quite simply against the law. Their actions have affected millions, and we'll be asking the courts to remedy this major breach of trust," claimed Mr Lloyd.
"Through this action, we will send a strong message to Google and other tech giants in Silicon Valley that we're not afraid to fight back if our laws are broken."
Google has previously paid out to settle similar claims about the Safari Workaround. But the tech company says the Google You Owe Us case has no merit and it will be fighting back.
"This is not new - we have defended similar cases before. We don't believe it has any merit and we will contest it," a spokesperson for Google told Sky News.
Back in March last year, the UK Court of Appeal ruled that consumers did have a right to sue Google over misuse of privacy settings.
The Court said: "These claims raise serious issues which merit a trial.
"They concern what is alleged to have been the secret and blanket tracking and collation of information, often of an extremely private nature.
"The case relates to the anxiety and distress this intrusion upon autonomy has caused."
How to join the lawsuit
Anyone who meets the below criteria can be included in the compensation claim:
- Present in England and Wales between 1 June 2011 and 12 February 2012
- Had an Apple ID at that time
- Owned or was in possession of an iPhone
- Used the Safari browser to access the internet
- Kept the default security settings in the Safari browser
- Did not opt-out of tracking and collation via Google's "Ads preference Manager"
- Resident in England and Wales on 31 May 2017
If you meet the criteria above, you are automatically included in the class. You do not need to do anything at this stage. The case is being led by the lawyers and Richard Lloyd.
If the case is successful, you will be asked to provide proof that you qualify to receive money under the claim via the Google You Owe Us website.
This could include proof that you had an Apple ID and were an iPhone user between 1 June 2011 and 16 February 2012, for example.
If you were affected but do not wish to be part of the claim, you can opt out here .