A U.S. appeals court has ruled that Google must face a revived lawsuit brought by Google Chrome users who allege that the company collected their personal information without consent, even after they chose not to synchronize their browsers with their Google accounts. The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco found that the lower court judge who previously dismissed the proposed class action should have evaluated whether reasonable Chrome users understood they were consenting to Google’s data collection when browsing online.
The decision comes after Google agreed last year to destroy billions of records to settle a separate lawsuit accusing the company of tracking users who believed they were browsing privately, including in Chrome’s “Incognito” mode. Despite the previous settlement, this new ruling indicates that Google must still address claims related to data collection practices involving users who did not enable the sync function in Chrome.
In its ruling, the appeals court noted that Google’s general privacy policy allowed for data collection, but the company had also promoted Chrome by suggesting that specific user information would not be sent to Google unless the sync feature was activated. Circuit Judge Milan Smith emphasized that a reasonable user might not have understood that they were consenting to data collection simply by using Chrome without syncing.
The case now returns to U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers in Oakland, California, who had previously dismissed it in December 2022. The revived lawsuit could have significant implications for Google, particularly regarding how the company communicates its data collection practices to users and the transparency of its privacy policies.
Google responded to the ruling by expressing disagreement and confidence that the facts of the case support their position. A spokesperson stated that Chrome Sync offers seamless usage across devices and includes clear privacy controls. Meanwhile, Matthew Wessler, the attorney representing the plaintiffs, expressed satisfaction with the appeals court’s decision and anticipated moving forward to trial.
The proposed class action includes Chrome users who did not sync their browsers with Google accounts since July 27, 2016. These users argue that Google should have adhered to Chrome’s privacy notice, which stated that personal information would not be collected unless the sync function was turned on. The outcome of this case could further shape the legal landscape surrounding user privacy and data collection practices in the tech industry.
In addition to this revived case, Google’s settlement related to Incognito mode has allowed users to sue the company individually for damages, with tens of thousands of users in California alone filing such lawsuits in state courts.
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