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
Per The Verge
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
“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, 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
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