January 29, 2019 - 12:02 PM
PROVIDENCE, R.I. - Rhode Island has been named the lead plaintiff in a class action lawsuit against Google's parent company.
State Treasurer Seth Magaziner said Tuesday a federal court in California approved his motion to make Rhode Island's public employee retirement system the lead plaintiff in the lawsuit against Alphabet Inc.
The Employees' Retirement System of Rhode Island and others allege that Google acknowledged in October it found a privacy flaw affecting Google Plus users six months prior.
Magaziner says investors deserved to know when the flaw was discovered. He says Google concealed it to keep its stock price from falling.
A message seeking comment was sent to Google.
Google announced last month it's accelerating plans to shut down the Plus service because the personal information of 52.5 million users had been exposed.
News from © The Associated Press, 2019