At Australian Federal Court on Wednesday, Google was ordered to hand over evidence to the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) in relation to the watchdog's allegations that Google mishandled the location data[1] of its users.
The evidence that is to be handed to the ACCC includes over 40 categories of information and data.
Throughout the day, Google's legal counsel Robert Yezerski told the court he was concerned that handing over the evidence via discovery would postpone the case's decision as it is a time consuming and costly process.
He also labelled the ACCC's allegations as "very narrow" and brushed off any references to Google's interface as being a "labyrinth of screens and processes", explaining that the allegations were only applicable to certain Google account settings and certain screens.
"The case is very narrow and it's narrow in three particular respects. First it's narrow because it's limited to two Google account settings. These are not device settings and they're not app settings, being location history and weather activity," Yezerski said.
"Second, it's limited only to statements made about the settings on Android mobile devices and, as I say, that's significant because these settings can be accessed on other platforms in other ways and there's no general allegation that everything Google ever said about these particular Google accounts was misleading -- it's only in the context of users who accessed these settings in a particular way.
"Finally, it's limited to the specific allegations that are [misrepresented by the ACCC]."
While Justice Thomas Thawley understood the case had significant public importance, he came to the conclusion that the matter's decision was not so urgent that it had to be heard this year.
Not all of the ACCC's requests for evidence were