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The lawsuit was dismissed by a US court in 2022, but an appeals court has just reversed the decision, adding to the scrutiny Google faces in the country.
An issue with the way Chrome collects the data of its users has been revived by a US appeals court, adding another legal challenge for Google.
The case stems from 2020 and alleges that Google collects data from Chrome users whether they enabled the “Chrome sync” feature or not. This is a feature that lets users sync their Chrome activity with a Google account so they can retain and access information from multiple devices.
The plaintiffs of the case claim Chrome sent Google various data about their activities without their permission. A 2022 court ruling dismissed the case, but now an appeals court has reversed that decision.
The 2022 court ruling said Google had adequately disclosed the collection of data from Chrome and that the plaintiffs had agreed by accepting Google’s privacy policies.
But in the verdict, the US Circuit Court of Appeals for the ninth circuit in San Francisco said the lower court judge should have assessed whether Chrome users properly understood that they were agreeing to data collection by using Chrome.
“The panel explained that the district court should have reviewed the terms of Google’s various disclosures and decided whether a reasonable user reading them would think that he or she was consenting to the data collection,” the appeals court said.
The appeals court said the earlier ruling focused on “browser agnosticism” – stating that various browsers may send data to Google and that the amount can vary depending on “various settings”.
By focusing on browser agnosticism instead of “conducting the reasonable person inquiry”, the appeals court said the district court “failed to apply the correct standard”.
“Viewed in the light most favourable to plaintiffs, browser agnosticism is irrelevant because nothing in Google’s disclosures is tied to what other browsers do,” the appeals court said.
A Google spokesperson told The Verge that the company disagrees with this ruling and that it is confident the facts are on its side.
The revived lawsuit comes as Google faces serious scrutiny in the US, with the Department of Justice and the Federal Trade Commission taking issue with the tech giant’s power. A recent antitrust case ruled that Google has monopoly power in the search market and that its distribution agreements have “anticompetitive effects”.
The result of that case could be massive, as US officials are reportedly considering splitting off portions of Google, such as Android or Chrome.
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