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Google on Thursday settled a class-action lawsuit filed by users who claimed the search giant collected and tracked their data in “Incognito” mode, a Chrome browser setting intended to protect users' privacy.
A federal judge in California previously set a 2024 trial date for the case, but that was put on hold while the details of the settlement were finalized, a court filing said Thursday.
Terms of the settlement have not been made public, but the original lawsuit included claims ranging from $100 to $1,000 per plaintiff, which the lawsuit says could be in the millions. The total cost to Google could have been billions if it had lost the case. A spokesman for the company declined to comment.
Google users who choose to use the Chrome Internet browser in “Incognito” mode usually assume that what they search and view is untraceable. But in the 2020 lawsuit, citing internal emails between Google executives, lawyers alleged that Google tracked customers' browser usage in “incognito” mode to measure web traffic and sell ads.
Google recently announced new protection for user location data. Tech giants such as Amazon, Meta and Google owner Alphabet were recently accused by federal regulators of violating various privacy laws.
Attorneys for the plaintiffs did not immediately respond to a request for comment.