Google must face U.S. privacy lawsuit over commingled user data

A federal judge rejected Google Inc’s (GOOGL.O) bid to dismiss a privacy lawsuit claiming it commingled user data across different products and disclosed that data to advertisers without permission.Saying his decision was a close call, U.S. District Judge Paul Grewal in San Jose, California, ruled on Monday night that Google must face breach of contract and fraud claims by users of Android-powered devices who had downloaded at least one Android application through Google Play.

Other parts of the lawsuit were dismissed, including claims brought on behalf of account users who switched to non-Android devices from Android devices after Google had changed its privacy policy in 2012 to allow the commingling.