A $5 billion privacy lawsuit involving millions of users was settled by Google

Google, a division of Alphabet, has consented to resolve a lawsuit alleging that it surreptitiously monitored the internet activity of millions of users who believed they were surfing in private.
A trial in the planned class action was slated for February 5, 2024, but U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers in Oakland, California, postponed it on Thursday after Google and consumer advocates said they had struck a preliminary deal.

At least $5 billion was requested in the complaint. The contents of the settlement were not made public, but the attorneys said that they had reached a legally binding term sheet during mediation and anticipated submitting a formal settlement proposal for the court’s approval by February 24, 2024.

Requests for comment were not immediately answered by Google or the attorneys for the individuals who filed the complaint.

The accusers said that even when they switched Google Chrome and other browsers to “private” browsing mode and “Incognito” mode, Google’s analytics, cookies, and applications allowed the Alphabet subsidiary to monitor their online activities.

people said that this allowed Google to learn about their acquaintances, interests, favorite meals, shopping patterns, and “potentially embarrassing things” people search for online, turning it into a “unaccountable trove of information”.

Rogers denied Google’s request to have the case dismissed in August.

According to her, there was no concrete evidence that Google had promised in writing not to gather user data while users browsed in private mode. The court referenced Google’s privacy statement as well as further remarks made by the business suggesting restrictions on the kind of data it might gather.

The 2020 lawsuit, which was filed for infringement of federal wiretapping statutes and California privacy laws, requested at least $5,000 in damages per person for “millions” of Google users since June 1, 2016.

U.S. District Court, Northern District of California, Case No. 20-03664; Brown et al. v. Google LLC & al.