The U.S. Supreme Court referred the Frank v. Gaos case back to the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, Reuters reports. The appeals court approved an $8.5 million cy pres settlement in the case, where plaintiffs claim Google violated the Electronic Communications Privacy Act. The justices ordered the appeals court to take another look at the case to determine whether the plaintiffs had the proper legal standing to sue and whether they suffered any harm when Google shared their search requests with other websites. Justice Clarence Thomas called settlements “unfair and unreasonable” and added the 9th Circuit should not have approved it. Editor's Note: IAPP Westin Fellow Mitchell Noordyke, CIPP/E, CIPP/US, recently wrote about the case in this piece for Privacy Tracker.
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