Image by tvol via FlickrIt has been recently accepted by a U.S. judge that in respect to the previous decision of settling over Google's Buzz social network issue, an Internet privacy group, EPIC, was left with no proper reason, hence it is now rewarded $500,000. EPIC, the Electronic Privacy Information Center, was previously ignored and not enlisted in the deal finalized by the court and implemented by the Federal Trade Commission last year. The case asserted that Buzz actually puts the privacy of Gmail users in great risk. Google finally made a settlement with FTC in March, 2011, and arranged to pay the fine to the listed independent privacy audit firms.
Last year, Google also had to agree to resolve another separately filed lawsuit, registered by a complaint from a Gmail user. A part of the deal negotiated and agreed at that time, stated that more than $6 million will be distributed among the major groups which were supporting Internet privacy issues. This list of the group did not include EPIC, which later took Google to court again and filed a legal claim against the announced decision. EPIC, along with few other gathered groups, asserted that Google has cleverly made the deal to channel most of the funds to the same groups which already "receive support from Google for lobbying, consulting, or similar services."
The main complaint made by EPIC, and its supporter groups, was that the distribution of the fine charged is meritless. Finally now on Tuesday, another U.S. District Judge, named James Ware, made the announcement that there are no grounds found justifying the exclusion of EPIC from this settlement and its grant. Hence, the ruling stated that "EPIC has demonstrated that it is a well-established and respected organization within the field of Internet privacy." In response to this decision the Executive Director of EPIC, Marc Rotenberg, personally said that "we appreciate the court's recognition of EPIC's important work."
The original claim filed by EPIC in the official lawsuit demanded a total $1.75 million. Although it is not confirm yet, that the decision gave the permission of giving all this money to EPIC or whether the new settlement will also include other partners like American Civil Liberties Union, the Electronic Frontier Foundation and the YMCA of Greater Long Beach, as well.
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