Islamabad, Aug 21: The go-ahead has been granted to a class action complaint that claims Google gathered user data from its Chrome browser without proper approval. The primary allegations of the 2020 lawsuit are that Google collected user data from Chrome users even when they had not turned on the Chrome sync feature.
With Chrome sync, users may save browser data to their Google accounts, which makes it possible for them to retrieve it from any device. This data includes bookmarks, passwords, and active tabs. Nonetheless, the lawsuit argues that Google obtained this information regardless of users’ consent to this syncing feature.
In 2022, Google successfully argued for the lawsuit’s dismissal, and Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers decided that consumers had given their agreement to the data collecting by accepting the privacy policy of the corporation. However, a recent ruling by Judge Milan D. Smith Jr. has changed the course of the case. Judge Smith reversed the earlier decision, claiming that Judge Gonzalez Rogers had not given sufficient thought to whether or not users had a true understanding of Google’s privacy policy.
Despite this, Google has announced intentions to let users access browsing history that has been saved without having them to enable Chrome sync. Castañeda claims that this action is unrelated to the current legal dispute and is not a reaction to the legal challenge.