9th Circuit Decision Supports Upholding Dismissal of Chrome Suit, Says Google

The 9th U.S. Circuit Appeals Court’s March 5 decision in Hammerling v. Google supports affirmance in the appeal brought by six Chrome users seeking to reverse the district court’s dismissal of their privacy complaint (see 2212290037), said Google in a letter Tuesday (docket 22-16993) to the 9th Circuit clerk. The six appellants allege that Chrome secretly sent users’ personal information to Google, regardless of whether the browser’s “sync mode” was turned on or off. The plaintiffs in Hammerling alleged that Google breached the same terms of service and privacy policy at issue in the Chrome appeal by collecting similar activity data relating to use of mobile applications, said Google’s letter. The 9th Circuit affirmed the dismissal of the plaintiffs’ breach of contract, privacy and Unfair Competition Law claims because Google’s privacy policy explains that Google collects data about users’ activity on third-party sites and apps that use Google’s services, it said. In so doing, the privacy policy unambiguously discloses Google’s collection of user activity data, it said.