Google has reached a settlement to resolve a US lawsuit alleging that it violated users’ privacy by tracking them even when they were using private mode for their browsing.
The world’s most popular search engine and its parent corporation Alphabet were sued for at least $5 billion (£3.9 billion) in damages.
Big tech companies are under more scrutiny in the US and abroad for their business practices.
On Thursday, US District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers postponed the case’s planned trial in California following the announcement by the attorneys that they had negotiated an initial settlement.
Earlier this year, Judge Rogers denied Google’s request to have the lawsuit dismissed, stating that she did not believe consumers had given their agreement for Google to gather data about their online activities.
The settlement’s details remained undisclosed. Nonetheless, by February 2024, attorneys are supposed to submit a formal settlement for the court’s approval.
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Incognito Mode Tracking: Class Action Alleges Unapproved Data Collection
In 2020, the legal firm Boies Schiller Flexner filed a class action alleging that Google continued to monitor users’ activities even after they turned their Google Chrome browser to Incognito mode and their other browsers to private mode.
It claimed that as a result, Google had become an unaccountable treasure trove of data on consumer preferences and possibly humiliating items.
It further stated that Google could not carry on gathering secret and unapproved data from almost every American who owns a phone or computer.
Even though many users believed differently, Google claimed to have been transparent about the data it collected when users watched in private mode.
According to the search engine, gathering search history—even in private viewing mode—helps website owners assess how well their products, marketing, content, and other elements are performing.
Users of Google’s Chrome browser have the option to search the internet in private mode without having their activity recorded to the browser or device. However, the websites you visit can measure usage with technologies like Google Analytics.
Google is being sued again over its search and online advertising policies.
The internet behemoth announced earlier this month that it will pay $700 million to resolve a lawsuit filed by several US states alleging Google was suppressing competition for its Play Store on Android smartphones.
This occurred a few days after Fortnite creator Epic Games won a US court battle against it. The game developer sued Google in 2020, alleging that the firm had unfairly boosted its app store’s dominance over competitors.
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