It tracks users. Google settles for record compensation

The fact that Google has to negotiate and sign an initial agreement that will involve spending at least $5 billion may open a new page throughout the Western world. In fact, every self-respecting legal system must protect everyone's privacy and, moreover, prevent fraudulent behavior. If the American company agreed to settle one of the largest class actions in history in such an expensive way, it is because over the years it has tracked and used the data of its users who browse incognito.

The figure of 5 billion is just an estimate and a formal agreement will not be reached before the beginning of next year, but it is already clear that this dispute and its highly expected results may mark the beginning of a new phase, which in the future, it is hoped, will not be limited to private companies (as in the case of Google). ), but also includes state agencies.

On the other hand, the right to privacy is a crucial element of every individual's freedom. Only figures of the caliber of the Nazi criminal Joseph Goebbels were able to assert that those who have nothing to hide have nothing to fear, and only judges and politicians dominated by Jacobin logic were able to propose this thesis again. By virtue of our original freedom, each of us has the right – in our own spaces – to move as we want without others observing and controlling us.

Surely any person wants to make this or that aspect of his personality public, but if he does not intend to do so and acts accordingly, no one will be able to cross certain limits. However, today privacy is often violated. The fact that banking secrecy has been eliminated in almost all Western countries, and that each of us is often forced to disclose (to government officials and others) certain aspects of our health condition, to name a few, violates fundamental rights. It is no coincidence that many governments are committed to combating cash, which has always represented a guarantee of anonymity and the protection of privacy.

In dealing with all these issues, there is a need to take decisive action on the part of the judicial system, in comparison with what is happening in California regarding the case between Google and consumers. In short, it's time to pit Google's credit against every other entity—public or private—that behaves this way. Especially since private sector giants of the caliber of the company founded by Larry Page and Sergey Brin often act in unison with certain political actors: as was clearly shown during the scandal of the so-called “Twitter files” or even when Google itself removed the social conservative image media Parler from Play Store application.

We are not only facing gross violations of individual rights. Above all, today we also have to deal with the emergence of a public-private force that is uniting political elites, big business, and progressive intellectuals in an alliance that has already done a great deal of damage.