Google Agrees to Destroy Billions of Users' Private Browsing Records
- Google agreed to destroy billions of data to settle a lawsuit claiming it secretly tracked records of people browsing privately in Chrome browser's incognito mode.
Users alleged that Google analytics, cookies and apps allowed the Alphabet unit to improperly track people who set Google's Chrome browser to "incognito" mode and other browsers to "private" browsing mode.
The plaintiffs say they didn't allow Google to have too much information to know what they were looking for online.
Reporting from the Guardian, Google agreed to settle a lawsuit worth 5 billion US dollars claiming that it secretly tracked users
They say this makes Google an unaccountable source of information by letting it know about their friends, favorite foods, hobbies, shopping habits and the most intimate and potentially embarrassing things they search for online.
Terms of the settlement were filed in federal court in Oakland, California, and require approval from U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers.
The class action lawsuit began in 2020, covering millions of Google users who used private search since June 1, 2016
Under the settlement, Google will update disclosures about what it collects in "private" searches, a process it has already begun.
Google will also allow incognito users to block third-party cookies for five years.
"The result is that Google will collect less data from users' private browsing sessions, and Google will make less money from that data," the plaintiffs' attorneys wrote.
Lawyers for the plaintiffs valued the deal at more than US$5 billion and reached US$7.8 billion.
Although users will not receive compensation, they can still sue for compensation individually.
According to court documents, Google supports final approval of the settlement, but disagrees with the legal and factual characterization of the plaintiffs.