• by Wendy Davis , Yesterday

Two California residents have filed a privacy lawsuit against Google and United Parcel Service over a feature that enables people to track package deliveries from a box on one of Google's search pages.

The complaint, brought by Lennie Woodley and Joseph Schrant, alleges that Google falsely tells users that only their tracking number will be sent to the package carrier.

Instead, according to the complaint, Google actually transmits "massive amounts of data" to outside companies including Adobe, Meta, Microsoft, The Trade Desk and Yahoo.

"The data transmitted to the third parties enabled them to learn details -- and to supplement their existing user profiles regarding users' behaviors and communications -- including their browsing history, visit history, website interactions, user input data, demographic and geolocation information (including whether a user is located in California), interests and preferences, purchasing behaviors, device information, referring URLs, session information, and user identifiers," Woodley and Schrant allege in their class-action complaint, filed Friday in the Northern District of California.

"Consumers did not know of, much less consent to, this type of tracking and data sharing when they clicked or pressed the Track Button," the plaintiffs assert.

The complaint includes claims that the companies violated California's wiretap law, as well as state privacy standards.

Google and UPS have not yet responded to MediaPost's request for comment.