Judge Vince Chhabria dismissed two LinkedIn lawsuits in the Northern District of California, ruling plaintiffs lacked standing to allege privacy violations. The judge stated users failed to prove they had extensions installed that conveyed private information to LinkedIn, noting voluntary download of extensions inherently exposes data. Plaintiffs Nicholas Farrell and Jeff Ganan filed class actions in April; Ganan's attorney J.

R. Howell is evaluating a state court appeal or Ninth Circuit challenge. LinkedIn won by arguing users voluntarily exposed data through browser extensions, making privacy claims implausible.

The dispute originated from "BrowserGate," a report by German advocacy group Fairlinked, linked to Estonian software firm Teamfluence which sued LinkedIn in Munich after its CEO was banned for scraping. Teamfluence developed a Chrome extension to identify LinkedIn traffic, leading to account suspensions validated by a German tribunal as justified contract breaches. LinkedIn's motion to dismiss cited Teamfluence's scraping activities as the real issue, not LinkedIn's data collection practices.

Fairlinked founder and Teamfluence representative sits on the group's board, prompting LinkedIn to accuse them of manufacturing a fake privacy controversy after being caught violating terms. The ruling does not address the legality of LinkedIn's surveillance but confirms lack of legal standing for the plaintiffs.