Down Angle Symbol A symbol in the form of an angle pointing downwards. This screen appears when you launch an “Incognito” browser in Google Chrome. Screenshot/Katherine Tangalakis-Lippert
- Google has agreed to settle a 2020 class action lawsuit seeking $5 billion for users of the Chrome browser.
- The lawsuit alleged that Google tracked users' activities in “incognito” privacy mode.
- Terms of the settlement, which still needs to be approved by a federal judge, were not disclosed.
On Thursday, Google agreed to settle a $5 billion privacy class-action lawsuit alleging that the company spied on people who used “Incognito” mode in its Chrome browser to monitor their Internet usage track.
The lawsuit, filed in 2020, alleged that Google misled users into believing that it would not track their internet activity in incognito mode. The lawsuit argued that Google's advertising technologies and third-party websites that used Google Analytics or Google Ad Manager continued to catalog details about users' website visits and activities despite supposedly using “private” browsing and provide this information Google servers sent back.
The plaintiffs also alleged that Google's activities yielded an “unexplainable wealth of information” about users who thought they were taking steps to protect their privacy by using the “Incognito” browser.
A federal judge still has to approve the settlement. Terms were not disclosed, but the lawsuit originally sought $5 billion on behalf of users; The plaintiffs' attorneys said they expect to submit a final settlement agreement to the court by Feb. 24.
Google representatives and plaintiffs' attorneys did not immediately respond to Business Insider's requests for comment on the settlement.
In the years since the lawsuit was first filed, Google announced a move away from precision-targeted ads and said it would no longer track certain users as they browse the Internet. The company also announced plans to eliminate third-party cookies, which many websites use to store user data, from its Chrome browser by 2022.
Despite its initial promise, The Verge reported that Google still hasn't completely phased out third-party cookies. However, the company says it will deactivate the technology by the second half of 2024.
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