Rejected in 2021 and revived in 2023, a class action against Google was authorized on Monday. According to the allegations of the representative of the proposed group, Michael Homsy, the processing of biometric data of the Google Photos application violates the right to privacy of the people who appear in the photos.
In January 2021, Michael Homsy explained in his class action request that he purchased an Android phone in March 2020 and transferred 5,500 photos to Google Photos. “At no time did the plaintiff know that the defendant [Google] extracted, collected, stored and used biometric facial data from his photos, we read. The applicant was not notified […] until January 2021.”
The trial judge, Donald Bisson, of the Superior Court, had rejected the first request for authorization in his judgment of 1er March 2022, claiming that the required burden of proof was not met. According to this judgment, the illegal acts alleged against Google by Homsy stemmed from assertions without factual basis.
On September 28, the Court of Appeal overturned the Tribunal’s decision, reopening the door to the proposed class action. In its judgment, the Court of Appeal concluded that Judge Bisson erred in requiring proof from Mr. Homsy that Google violates the privacy of its users.
With Karim Benssaiseh, The Press