Google, a subsidiary of Alphabet, has settled a lawsuit accusing the tech giant of covertly tracking the internet activities of users who believed their browsing was private.
US District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers in Oakland, California, halted the scheduled trial in the proposed class action on February 5, 2024, after lawyers for both Google and consumers disclosed a preliminary settlement.
The lawsuit, seeking a minimum of $5 billion in damages, alleged privacy violations related to Google’s analytics, cookies, and apps that allegedly continued tracking user activity, even when browsers were set to “Incognito” or “private” modes.
The plaintiffs claimed that this transformed Google into an “unaccountable trove of information,” allowing the company to glean insights into users’ details, including friends, hobbies, preferences, and potentially embarrassing online searches.
While the settlement terms remain undisclosed, attorneys stated that they have agreed to a binding term sheet through mediation. They anticipate presenting a formal settlement for court approval by February 24, 2024. Google and the plaintiff’s legal representatives have yet to comment on the settlement.
In August, Judge Rogers rejected Google’s attempt to dismiss the lawsuit, highlighting the ambiguity regarding whether Google had made a legally binding commitment not to collect data during private browsing.
The lawsuit, filed in 2020, covered “millions” of Google users since June 1, 2016, seeking damages of at least $5,000 per user for alleged violations of federal wire-tapping and California privacy laws.