Google Faces Trial Over Chrome Data Collection Allegations

Google must face a trial after a US appeals court revived a lawsuit alleging that the company misled Chrome users about its data collection practices. The class action lawsuit, which has been pursued by Chrome users since 2020, claims that Google harvested user data without proper consent.

Plaintiffs argue that they were assured by the terms in Google’s Privacy Notice that certain personal data would not be collected unless they activated the "sync" function on their Chrome browsers. However, they allege that Google collected this data regardless of their sync settings.

The case, which was initially dismissed by a lower court after it was successfully proved that the plaintiffs had consented to the data collection, was revived by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in a 3-0 decision. The appellate court questioned whether a reasonable Chrome user would have understood that they were consenting to the data collection practices in question.

Google maintains that its data collection practices are transparent and that users are informed through clear privacy controls. "We disagree with this ruling and are confident the facts of the case are on our side," said Google spokesperson José Castañeda in a statement to The Verge.

The revived case is now being sent back to U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers in Oakland, California, who had previously dismissed it in December 2022.

This case comes amid increasing scrutiny of Big Tech, with courts and regulators around the world becoming more stringent in their oversight. Recently, Meta agreed to pay $1.4 billion due to privacy violations against Texans. In a similar case, the Texas Attorney General is suing GM for selling drivers’ personal data to insurance companies.