Ninth Circuit judge questions fairness of $9 million for privacy groups in Google Street View settlement | Courthouse News Service

Ninth Circuit judge questions fairness of $9 million for privacy groups in Google Street View settlement | Courthouse News Service

SAN FRANCISCO (CN) — After ordering Google to pay privacy rights groups $9 million from a $13 million settlement over data collected by its Street View cars, a Ninth Circuit judge said her colleagues should rethink the practice of distributing the fruits of hard-fought class actions to charitable organizations and nonprofits in place of direct payments to class members.

U.S. Circuit Judge Bridget Bade, a Donald Trump appointee, wrote there is an “increasing skepticism” over whether injured class members actually benefit from seeing their settlement money go to third parties, especially when they may not have even heard of the organization.

This type of settlement is known as cy pres, a French legal term meaning “as near as possible,” and is typically adopted when it is impractical to distribute money to a class.