Class Action Lawsuit Claims Meta, Yandex Track Android Users’ Data Without Consent

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A proposed class action lawsuit claims that Meta and Yandex Metrica have intentionally “abused” software weaknesses in Android devices to deanonymize and track users’ activities and communications without their knowledge or consent, with little to no resistance from Google.

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Central to the 39-page privacy lawsuit is a June 3, 2025 Ars Technica report that revealed that Meta and Russia-based Yandex have embedded into millions of websites tracking code that deanonymizes Android device users, whose browsers secretly send the companies unique web identifiers via “covert connections.” The case accuses Google of negligently failing to stop Meta and Yandex from breaching Android users’ privacy while misrepresenting the privacy protections offered by the software.

“Put simply, Meta and Yandex were exploiting holes in Android software to link users’ anonymous online-browsing activity with identifying information saved locally on Meta and Yandex mobile applications on their devices,” the complaint summarizes, accusing the tech giants of violating the privacy of millions of Android users nationwide.

The suit contends that the apparent privacy holes in Android software were made possible by the lack of controls Google imposes on developers who operate on the platform.

Meta, specifically, is accused of using cookies, third-party tracking scripts and tracking pixels such as the Meta Pixel to vacuum up users’ online activity. Once implemented, these data trackers are able to transmit user browsing data back to its source or host server with personal identifiers attached to it, the filing says.

The collected information is then, according to the complaint, used by Meta to generate detailed, individual user behavior profiles for algorithmic interference, ad targeting and content customization, from which the company both directly and indirectly profits.

Additionally, the complaint claims that these tracking methods are able to skirt around the privacy protections made available on Android devices by developer Google, such as Android’s permission controls, Incognito Mode on the Chrome web browser and clearing the device’s stored cookies. Per the filing, this has rendered Google’s advertisements and promises of privacy and tight security on Android devices false as these software weaknesses persist and are abused by Meta and other companies.

“For Plaintiffs and Class members the result is that when using their Android devices, and logged into a Meta or Yandex application, what they watched, clicked, bought, communicated, or read online was tracked without their consent or knowledge,” the case alleges. “By stripping users of their anonymity Defendants profited from targeted advertising and the sale of Android software and devices.”

The class action lawsuit against Meta, Alphabet and Google seeks to represent all Android device users in the U.S. who, while having a Meta or Yandex app installed, visited websites on the same device and had their browsing information collected without their consent within the applicable statute of limitations period.

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