Google set to face class-action lawsuit over data collection in Chrome

Google will have to answer in court allegations of collecting users’ private information inside its Chrome browser without their permission following a new ruling.

A US federal appeals court has reversed a previous dismissal of the case Calhoun v. Google LLC on the basis that the lower court should have assessed “whether a reasonable user reading [Google’s privacy disclosures would think that he or she was consenting to the data collection].

Per The Verge, at the heart of the case is the allegation that Google harvested data on users of Chrome without opting into Chrome Sync - a feature designed to sync bookmarks, passwords and tabs across multiple Chrome clients.

Google back in court on appeal

The plaintiffs in the case assert that Chrome sent Google their browsing history, IP addresses, and identifying cookies without their say-so. This was previously dismissed on the basis of Judge Yvonne Gonzales Rogers noting that this behaviour was established in Chrome’s privacy policy, and finding users’ continued use of the web browser enough to establish agreement with that policy.

However, on appeal, Judge Milan D. Smith Jr. wrote users may not have understood these disclosures thanks to conflicting customer-facing information provided by Google.

“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.”

Google, naturally, aren’t happy with this, with a spokesperson for the company telling The Verge that it intends to fight the case. And in the midst of all this is the announcement that passwords will soon sync across Android and Desktop Chrome clients without Chrome Sync, so long as users are signed into the browser with their Google account. 

So, data is still being synced to a Google account without express permission being given via Chrome Sync, but at least it’s just passwords, and a presumably optional measure designed to be convenient for users. It’s also not an entirely new feature, with the change having arrived on iOS in November 2023

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