• by Wendy Davis  @wendyndavis, September 6, 2018

A Minnesota resident has dropped a lawsuit alleging that Google shared names and other personally identifiable information of people who purchased apps with developers, according to court papers filed last week.

The court papers didn't give a reason for the withdrawal.

The suit was originally brought last year by Adam Gurno, who said in a class-action complaint that he purchased nine apps totaling more than $26 from the Google PlayStore between 2012 and 2014. He alleged that Google transmitted his name, email address and ZIP code to the developers without his consent.

Gurno's allegations stemmed from reports in 2013 that Google automatically shared app buyers' personal information with developers. Australian developer Dan Nolan revealed the transmissions in a blog post that criticized the data-sharing as a "massive, massive privacy issue."

Google's privacy policy for Wallet said at the time that the company may disclose information that is necessary to process transactions. Google initially contended it was necessary to share users' data, because Google didn't process the purchase. In 2014, the company changed its practice.

Google defeated two prior lawsuits with similar allegations, including a federal suit brought by app purchaser Alice Svenson, who alleged that Google transmitted her personal information to the developer YCDroid after she purchased an app that converts SMS messages to emails.

U.S. District Court Judge Beth Labson Freeman in San Jose, California dismissed that matter in late 2016, ruling that Svenson hadn't shown that she was injured by the alleged data sharing. Freeman also said in her ruling that there was no evidence that YCDroid had ever viewed Svenson's personal data.