Google Agrees to Delete Data in Lawsuit Resolution

To resolve a lawsuit alleging that it surreptitiously monitored the internet activity of users who believed they were browsing in private, Google agreed to delete billions of data records.

Terms of the settlement were filed on Monday in the Oakland, California, federal court and require approval by U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers.

Lawyers for the plaintiffs valued the accord at more than $5 billion and as high as $7.8 billion. Google is paying no damages, but users may sue the company individually for damages.

The class action began in 2020, covering millions of Google users who have used private browsing since June 1, 2016.

Users alleged that Google’s analytics, cookies, and apps let the Alphabet unit improperly track people who set Google’s Chrome browser to “Incognito” mode and other browsers to “private” browsing mode.

They said this turned Google into an app by letting it learn about their friends, favourite foods, hobbies, shopping habits, and the “most intimate and potentially embarrassing things” they hunt for online.

Reuters