Google faces class action lawsuit over Chrome data collection, overturning previous ruling in favor of Google
In a lawsuit over Google's collection of user data by Chrome, a U.S. appeals court on August 20, 2024, overturned a previous ruling that had dismissed a class action lawsuit against the company for misleading users into believing that Google was not collecting their data.
Google has to face a class action lawsuit over Chrome's data collection - The Verge
US appeals court revives Google privacy class action | Reuters
https://www.reuters.com/legal/us-appeals-court-revives-google-privacy-class-action-2024-08-20/
The ruling stems from a 2020 class action lawsuit that alleged that data was collected regardless of whether users had enabled Chrome's sync feature.
In response to the allegations by plaintiff Patrick Calhoun and others that 'Google knowingly and unlawfully collected Chrome users' browsing history, IP addresses, cookies, and unique browser identifiers without the users' explicit permission,' Google countered that 'users had consented to the data collection by agreeing to the privacy policy.'
One particular point of contention was the interpretation of the privacy policy, which stated that 'You don't need to provide any personal information to use Chrome,' giving the impression that Google would not receive any personal information unless users turned on the sync function.
In a December 2022
However, on August 20, 2024, Judge Milan D. Smith Jr. of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit stated that 'the lower court that dismissed the class action lawsuit should have evaluated whether reasonable Chrome users would have consented to Google collecting their data.' The court overturned the December 2022 ruling and remanded the case.
'Google has promoted Chrome in a way that, while disclosing a general privacy policy, implies that certain information will not be sent to Google unless users turn on sync. A reasonable user would not necessarily understand that they were consenting to the data collection at issue,' Judge Smith wrote in his decision.
In court cases, the term 'reasonable person' refers to the average person in society whose thoughts and actions are not extreme. In other words, Judge Smith pointed out in his ruling that the average person would not think that simply using Chrome would mean agreeing to provide their data to Google.
'We are pleased with this verdict and look forward to the next trial,' said Matthew Wessler, the plaintiffs' attorney.
Meanwhile, Google said in a media statement, 'We disagree with this ruling and believe the facts are in our favor. Chrome Sync, our Chrome synchronization feature, gives users a seamless experience using Chrome across their different devices and provides clear privacy controls.'
The lawsuit follows an earlier lawsuit over Chrome's incognito mode collecting data. The terms of that settlement included allowing users to sue Google individually for damages, and tens of thousands of users have already filed lawsuits against Google in California courts alone.
Google agrees to discard browsing data collected in Chrome's 'incognito mode,' a victory worth 1 trillion yen for plaintiffs - GIGAZINE
Google plans to allow users to access stored data without enabling Chrome Sync, but according to The Verge, a Google spokesperson said, 'This decision is unrelated to the lawsuit.'
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