The Rhode Island pension fund filed a lawsuit against Alphabet Inc., the parent company of Google, after it was revealed that Google executives had hidden privacy breaches that compromised the personal information of 52.5 million users.
“Google had an obligation to tell its users and investors that private information wasn’t being protected,” said Rhode Island General Treasurer Seth Magaziner in a press release regarding the lawsuit. “Instead, Google executives decided to hide the breaches from its users and continued to mislead investors and federal regulators. This is an unconscionable violation of public trust by Google, and we are seeking financial restitution on behalf of the Rhode Island pension fund and other investors.”
The underlying action, pending in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, alleges the company of misleading shareholders and federal regulators when they failed to disclose ongoing breaches in private user information from its social media platform Google+.
In October, Google announced it was shutting down the Google+ social media platform, after whistle blowers came forward with claims that the company had hidden vulnerabilities in its security measures. On Monday, Google announced that personal information for 52.5 million users had been compromised.
The motion can be viewed at: treasury.ri.gov/AlphabetLitigation
Tags: Google, Lawsuit, Rhode Island, Seth Magaziner