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IT Home reported on August 21 that a federal appeals court in the United States ruled today to overturn a class action lawsuit dismissed in December 2022. The lawsuit accused Google of collecting user data through the Chrome browser without user consent. The court held thatThe lower court should review Google's disclosures and determine "whether users would consider themselves consenting to the data collection when reading them."

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The class action lawsuit was first filed in 2020.The plaintiffs accused Google of collecting their data regardless of whether the user enabled the Chrome Sync feature.The Chrome Sync feature can save bookmarks, passwords, open tabs and other data to a Google Account, making it easier for users to access this information when they log in to Chrome on different devices.

The plaintiffs claimed that Chrome "intentionally and unlawfully" sent users' browsing history, IP addresses, persistent cookie identifiers, and unique browser identifiers to Google without explicit permission. Google previously argued that users agreed to this practice when accepting the company's privacy policy. District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers agreed with Google's view, saying in her ruling to dismiss the lawsuit that "Google fully disclosed the collection of relevant data and the plaintiffs consented to it."

However, in today’s ruling, Court of Appeals Judge Milan D. Smith Jr. noted thatJudge Gonzalez Rogers did not consider whether the user actually understood the agreement."Google made general privacy disclosures, yet lured users to Chrome by suggesting that certain information would not be sent to Google unless the user turned on sync," Smith wrote. The case will be sent back to the lower court for a new hearing.

IT Home noted that Google spokesman José Castañeda said in a statement: "We disagree with this ruling and believe that the facts of the case are on our side. Chrome Sync helps users use Chrome seamlessly on different devices and has clear privacy controls." Although Google will no longer require users to enable Chrome Sync to access saved information, Castañeda said, "This decision has nothing to do with the lawsuit."