The plaintiffs claim that Chrome “knowingly and unlawfully” sent Google browsing history, IP addresses, persistent cookie identifiers and unique browser identifiers without their express permission.

Google faces a class action lawsuit alleging that Chrome collected user data without their consent. The lawsuit, initially filed in 2020, claims Google extracted data from Chrome users, regardless of their consent to Chrome Sync. This feature, which stores bookmarks, passwords and browsing data in a user's Google account, facilitates seamless access across multiple devices.

In a recent development, a federal appeals court in December 2022 overturned an earlier decision dismissing the case. The court highlighted the need to review Google's disclosures to users to determine whether they are consenting to data collection. The plaintiffs accused Chrome of transmitting browsing history, IP addresses and unique identifiers without express permission.

The plaintiffs claim that Chrome “knowingly and unlawfully” sent Google browsing history, IP addresses, persistent cookie identifiers and unique browser identifiers without their express permission. At the time, Google argued that users consented to this by accepting the company's privacy policy. Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers agreed, saying in her order granting the dismissal that “Google made adequate disclosures, and plaintiffs, consented to the collection of the data at issue.”

The decision adds to Google's string of legal defeats over the past year. In December, a jury in San Francisco found that Google broke competition laws in how it ran its app store for Android devices. Earlier this month, a federal judge said the company's search engine business was an illegal monopoly.