LinkedIn Wins Dismissal of Browser Extension Scanning Lawsuits

LinkedIn won a federal court dismissal of two lawsuits alleging it scans users’ Chrome extensions for data. Judge Vince Chhabria of the U. S. District Court for the Northern District of California ruled that the plaintiffs failed to show standing because they did not prove that any installed extensions actually transmitted private information to LinkedIn. The judge granted the defendants’ motion to dismiss but allowed the plaintiffs to amend their complaints, while expressing skepticism that a viable privacy claim could be made. Chhabria noted that users voluntarily download extensions that are designed to share data with the sites that host them, making it unlikely that a privacy violation could be established. The two California residents who filed the actions are now weighing whether to file in state court, where standing rules differ, or to appeal the ruling to the Ninth Circuit.