Google, which is owned tech giant Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG)(NASDAQ:GOOGL), is required to face a dismissed class action lawsuit by Google Chrome users after U.S. appeals court decided to revive the case.
The suit was brought against Google for allegedly collecting Chrome users' personal information without their permission after deciding to not synchronize their browsers with their Google accounts, Reuters reported. The proposed class covers Chrome users since July 27, 2016.
The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco said the lower court judge who dismissed the suit should have assessed whether Chrome users consented to allow Google to collect their data as they browsed online.
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Tuesday's 3-0 decision comes after Google agreed last year to destroy billions of records to settle a suit claiming Google tracked people who thought they were browsing privately, even users browsing in Chrome's "Incognito" mode.
Google did not immediately respond to Benzinga's request for comment.
The lower court judge concluded Google's general privacy policy allowing data collection governed because the company would have collected the plaintiffs' information regardless of which browsers they used.
But Circuit Judge Milan Smith called that focus misplaced in Tuesday's decision.
"Here, 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," Smith wrote. "A reasonable user would not necessarily understand that they were consenting to the data collection at issue."
The appeals court returned the case to U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers in Oakland, California, who dismissed it in December 2022.
Price Action: Alphabet gained 0.33% to close at $168.96 on Tuesday, while exchange-traded funds that track the stock trended downward for the most part.
T-Rex 2X Long Alphabet Daily Target ETF (BATS:GOOX) rose 0.73%
Vanguard Communication Services ETF (NYSE:VOX) slipped 0.04%
Communication Services Select Sector SPDR Fund (NYSE:XLC) declined 0.07%
IShares Global Comm Services ETF (NYSE:IXP) went down 0.06%
Fidelity MSCI Communication Services Index ETF (NYSE:FCOM) dipped 0.15%
在美国上诉法院决定恢复该案后，科技巨头Alphabet Inc.（纳斯达克股票代码：GOOG）（纳斯达克股票代码：GOOG）旗下的谷歌被要求面临谷歌浏览器用户驳回的集体诉讼。
路透社报道，该诉讼是针对谷歌的，原因是谷歌在决定不将浏览器与谷歌账户同步后，涉嫌在未经Chrome用户许可的情况下收集他们的个人信息。拟议的课程涵盖自2016年7月27日以来的Chrome用户。
旧金山第九巡回上诉法院表示，驳回诉讼的下级法院法官本应评估Chrome用户是否同意允许谷歌在网上浏览时收集数据。
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周二的3-0决定是在谷歌去年同意销毁数十亿条记录以解决一项诉讼之后作出的，该诉讼声称谷歌追踪了那些认为自己在私下浏览的人，甚至是使用Chrome的 “隐身” 模式浏览的用户。
谷歌没有立即回应本辛加的置评请求。
下级法院法官得出结论，谷歌允许收集数据的一般隐私政策受其管辖，因为无论原告使用哪种浏览器，该公司都会收集他们的信息。
但是巡回法官米兰·史密斯在周二的裁决中称这一重点是错误的。
史密斯写道：“谷歌在这里披露了一般的隐私信息，但却对Chrome进行了宣传，暗示除非用户开启同步功能，否则某些信息不会发送给谷歌。”“理智的用户不一定会明白他们同意有争议的数据收集。”
上诉法院将此案退回加利福尼亚州奥克兰的美国地方法院法官伊冯娜·冈萨雷斯·罗杰斯，后者于2022年12月驳回了该案。
价格走势：周二，Alphabet上涨0.33％，收于168.96美元，而追踪该股的交易所交易基金大部分呈下跌趋势。
T-rex 2X Long Alphabet每日目标ETF（BATS: GOOX）上涨0.73％
Vanguard 通信服务ETF（纽约证券交易所代码：VOX）下跌0.04％
通信服务精选行业SPDR基金（纽约证券交易所代码：XLC）下跌0.07％
iShares全球通信服务ETF（纽约证券交易所代码：IXP）下跌0.06％
富达摩根士丹利资本国际公司通信服务指数ETF（纽约证券交易所代码：FCOM）下跌0.15％
