The lawsuit alleged that the tech giant tracked the activity of individuals who believed they were privately using Chrome browser’s incognito mode
Google has agreed to delete billions of records to settle a lawsuit alleging that it covertly tracked the internet activity of individuals who believed they were browsing privately in its Chrome browser’s incognito mode. Users claimed that Google’s analytics, cookies, and apps allowed the Alphabet unit to improperly track individuals who set Google’s Chrome browser to “incognito” mode and other browsers to “private” browsing mode.
They argued that this transformed Google into an “unaccountable repository of information,” enabling it to gather details about their friends, preferred foods, hobbies, shopping patterns, and the “most intimate and potentially embarrassing things” they search for online.
The terms of the settlement were filed on Monday in the federal court of Oakland, California, and must be approved by US District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers. The class action, which began in 2020, encompasses millions of Google users who used private browsing since June 1, 2016.
As part of the settlement, Google will revise its disclosures regarding the information it gathers during “private” browsing, a process it has already initiated. It will also allow users in incognito mode to block third-party cookies for five years.
“The outcome is that Google will gather less data from users’ private browsing sessions, resulting in lower revenue from data,” stated the plaintiffs’ attorneys.
The plaintiffs’ lawyers estimated the settlement’s worth to be over $5 billion, possibly reaching $7.8 billion. While users will not receive compensation, they retain the option to individually pursue damages. Google has not yet responded to requests for comment.
Court documents indicate that Google backs the final approval of the settlement but disputes the plaintiffs’ “legal and factual characterizations.”
“We are limited in how strongly we can market Incognito because it’s not truly private, thus requiring really fuzzy, hedging language that is almost more damaging,” Google’s chief marketing officer, Lorraine Twohill, wrote to the CEO, Sundar Pichai, in 2019.
David Boies, an attorney for the plaintiffs, described the settlement as “a historic step in requiring honesty and accountability from dominant technology companies” in a statement.
In December, a preliminary settlement was reached, setting a trial date for February 5, 2024. The terms were not revealed at that point. The plaintiffs’ lawyers intend to request unspecified legal fees to be paid by Google at a later date.
Google has encountered similar lawsuits in the past. In 2022, the Texas attorney general sued the company, claiming that “‘incognito mode’ or ‘private browsing’ is a web browser function that suggests to consumers that Google will not track their search history or location activity.”
