A law company representing consumers aggrieved at Google’s data collection practices turned the screw on the company by filing a second lawsuit against it in less than two months over claims of unauthorised monitoring of user behaviour in apps, Reuters reported.

A complaint filed in a US district court in California yesterday (14 July) by Boies Schiller Flexner on behalf of individual consumers, claimed Google illegally logged user behaviour in “hundreds of thousands” of apps, even when users deactivated tracking on their Google account, the news outlet wrote.

The company claimed Google used its Firebase app development platform to hide information gathering from users, with the details then employed in personalising adverts and other content.

Last month, the law outfit initiated proceedings targeting the collection of data on search habits by Google Chrome, despite users selecting a private browsing feature.

Google previously faced allegations in the US regarding illegal location tracking of users who had disabled a Location History setting on mobie devices, a practice which had also led to complaints from European consumer groups.