Canada: Issued ruling by Court of Appeal in civil lawsuit against Google over the collection and storage of facial biometric data (Situmorang v Google LLC)

On 11 January 2024, the Canadian Court of Appeal for British Columbia issued its ruling regarding an appeal of the order of the Supreme Court of British Columbia from 24 November 2022 in the civil lawsuit against Google LLC (Google) over the collection and storage of facial biometric data. In particular, Yeremia Situmorang filed a class action lawsuit against Google, alleging that Google used facial recognition technology in its Google Photos app to collect and store facial biometric data of Canadians without their consent. This, he claimed, violated privacy laws. The Supreme Court of British Columbia dismissed his action, finding that his claim did not reveal a valid cause of action. The Court of Appeal for British Columbia reversed the court's decision, allowing the appeal. The court found errors in the lower court's judgment, including that it had mischaracterised the nature of Situmorang's claims and incorrectly assessed the viability of the claims. The Court of Appeal's decision allows the class action lawsuit to proceed.