Appeal court decides: Google Chrome data protection case goes to court

Google suffered another legal blow this week: an appeals court allowed a lawsuit against the company's practices in collecting personal data.

The six plaintiffs, all of whom had Google accounts and used the Chrome internet browser but chose not to synchronize their activities between the two browsers, allege: “Google intentionally and unlawfully causes Chrome to record and send users' personal information to Google, regardless of whether the user chooses to synchronize or even has a Google account.”

Matthew Wessler, a lawyer for the plaintiffs, told the panel of appeals judges last month: “If you look at Chrome's privacy policy, it says in plain language that this is not going to happen.”

At the heart of the case is the question: How does a reasonable person interpret Google's fine print about what happens to their personal data?

Before the appeals court's decision, a district court had ruled in Google's favor because the company was able to prove that the plaintiffs had consented to the data collection.

“We disagree with this ruling and are confident that the facts of the case are on our side. Chrome Sync helps people use Chrome seamlessly across their different devices and has clear privacy controls,” said Google spokesman José Castañeda.

Ninth Circuit Judge Milan D. Smith Jr. told Google attorney Andrew Schapiro, “You have a much higher opinion of the average intelligence of a computer user than I do.”

Former U.S. Attorney John P. Fishwick said judges have become stricter in cases like this in recent years.

“I think we're seeing a slight trend of judges being a little tougher on the big tech companies because they recognize the enormous power they have over the average citizen,” Fishwick said.

Earlier this month, a federal judge ruled in a years-long antitrust case brought by the U.S. Department of Justice that Google has an illegal monopoly on internet searches. The department will meet with the court next month to discuss how to fix the problem.

“We don't want companies to gain power by being the best, we want them to try to compete and maintain their position by trying to be the best and not engage in contracts or monopolistic behavior that prevent them from doing so and protect them from competitive pressures,” Jonathan Kanter, assistant attorney general for the department's Antitrust Division, told PBS.

Google plans to appeal the decision. Kent Walker, president of global affairs, said: “This decision recognizes that Google offers the best search engine, but concludes that we should not be allowed to make it easily accessible.”

Fishwick said the case is far from over and could take years to resolve.

“The big tech companies have legions of lawyers that they use to delay and adjourn trials,” Fishwick said. “And the technology changes, and that's why these cases drag on forever. And then sometimes the big tech company is now doing something different and the case is less significant because of that.”

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