Alphabet's Google has reached a preliminary settlement in a lawsuit accusing the tech giant of covertly tracking the online activities of millions of users who believed they were browsing privately. U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers in Oakland, California, has put the scheduled trial on hold, anticipating a formal settlement for court approval by February 24, 2024.
While the terms of the settlement remain undisclosed, the lawsuit, seeking a minimum of $5 billion, alleged that Google's analytics, cookies, and apps enabled the company to monitor user activity, even when individuals used the "Incognito" mode on Google's Chrome browser or other browsers' "private" browsing mode.
According to the plaintiffs, Google's practices turned the company into an "unaccountable trove of information," allowing it to gather details about users' friends, hobbies, favorite foods, shopping habits, and potentially embarrassing online searches.
In August, Judge Rogers rejected Google's attempt to dismiss the lawsuit, emphasizing the question of whether Google had made a legally binding commitment not to collect users' data during private browsing. The judge cited Google's privacy policy and company statements that indicated certain limitations on data collection.
Initiated in 2020, the lawsuit encompassed "millions" of Google users since June 1, 2016, with each user seeking at least $5,000 in damages for alleged violations of federal wiretapping and California privacy laws.
Google and the plaintiff consumers have not yet provided comments on the settlement. The case is identified as Brown et al v Google LLC et al, U.S. District Court, Northern District of California, No. 20-03664.
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