Photo: In Green / Shutterstock.com
Google will soon face a lawsuit alleging that Chrome, the search giant’s flagship browser, collects user data regardless of consent. This isn’t the first time Google will fight this claim, and the last ruling in December 2022 was in its favour. However, the decision has now been overturned by a federal court.
The original class action lawsuit, filed in 2020, alleged that Google Chrome collects data from its users regardless of whether they enabled Chrome Sync. The feature is meant to save bookmarks, passwords, open tabs, and other relevant data to the user’s Google account and sync it across various Chrome instances running on different devices.
As part of this sync, the search giant collected data, including browsing history, IP addresses, and other cookie and browser identifiers that could be used to identify specific users. Google won the initial ruling, as Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers agreed with Google’s defence, claiming that it appropriately disclosed its data collection as part of the company’s privacy policy, which users accept before using the browser.
However, Judge Milan D. Smith Jr., overseeing the appeal, writes that the decision taken before doesn’t consider whether or not the users understood the disclosure. “Google had a general privacy disclosure yet promoted Chrome by suggesting that certain information would not be sent to Google unless a user turned on sync,” said Smith before sending the court to lower courts for reconsideration.
Google, on the other hand, is quite confident in the overturned ruling. A spokesperson told The Verge that the company disagrees with the ruling and is confident that “the facts of the case are on our side.” Additionally, they announced that the company will soon no longer require users to enable Chrome Sync to access saved information.
In the News: PWA-based credential theft campaign found targeting Czech citizens
