Google Agrees to Settlement in Consumer Privacy Suit

Alphabet’s Google has reached a preliminary settlement in a class-action lawsuit that accused the tech giant of secretly tracking the internet activities of millions of users who believed they were browsing privately. The announcement came as U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers in Oakland, California, decided to put the scheduled trial on hold, initially set for February 5, 2024.

The lawsuit, seeking a minimum of $5 billion in damages, alleged that Google utilized analytics, cookies, and applications to monitor user activities, even when individuals had set their browsers, including Google Chrome in “Incognito” mode or other browsers in “private” browsing mode.

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Details of the settlement were not disclosed, but lawyers representing both Google and the consumers involved stated that they had agreed to a binding term sheet through mediation. They anticipate presenting a formal settlement for court approval by February 24, 2024.

Neither Google nor the legal representatives for the plaintiff consumers have responded to requests for comments as of now.

The lawsuit shed light on concerns related to user privacy, claiming that Google’s tracking persisted despite users’ efforts to maintain anonymity through private browsing settings. The company has not publicly addressed the specific allegations or provided a statement regarding the settlement agreement.

Source: Reuters