SAN FRANSISCO: Google has agreed to settle a consumer privacy lawsuit seeking at least $5 billion in damages over allegations it tracked the data of users who thought they were browsing the internet privately. The object of the lawsuit was the “incognito” mode on Google’s Chrome browser that the plaintiffs said gave users a false sense that what they were surfing online was not being tracked.But internal Google emails brought forward in the lawsuit demonstrated that users using incognito mode were being followed by the search and advertising behemoth for measuring web traffic and selling ads.
In a court filing, the judge confirmed that lawyers for Google reached a preliminary agreement to settle the class action lawsuit – originally filed in 2020 – which claimed that “millions of individuals” had likely been affected. Lawyers for the plaintiffs were seeking at least $5,000 for each user it said had been tracked by the firm’s Google Analytics or Ad Manager services. This would have amounted to at least $5 billion. No amount was given for the preliminary settlement between the parties. afp