Google settles USD 5 billion privacy lawsuit over tracking people using 'incognito mode'

Google has reached a settlement to resolve a USD 5 billion privacy complaint that claimed the company spied on users who tracked their online activity using the incognito mode in its Chrome browser and comparable secret modes in other browsers. Google allegedly deceived customers into thinking that it wouldn't track their online activity when they were using incognito mode, according to a class-action lawsuit filed in 2020.

San Francisco:Google has agreed to settle a USD 5 billion privacy lawsuit alleging that it spied on people who used the "incognito" mode in its Chrome browser along with similar "private" modes in other browsers to track their internet use.The class-action lawsuit filed in 2020 said Google misled users into believing that it wouldn't track their internet activities while using incognito mode.

It argued that Google's advertising technologies and other techniques continued to catalog details of users' site visits and activities despite their use of supposedly private browsing. Plaintiffs also charged that Google's activities yielded an unaccountable trove of information about users who thought they'd taken steps to protect their privacy.

The settlement, reached Thursday, must still be approved by a federal judge. Terms weren't disclosed, but the suit originally sought USD 5 billion on behalf of users; lawyers for the plaintiffs said they expect to present the court with a final settlement agreement by February 24 Google did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the settlement.

Read More