Google has agreed to settle a consumer privacy lawsuit seeking at least US$5 billion in damages over allegations it tracked the data of users who thought they were browsing the Internet privately.
The object of the lawsuit was the “incognito” mode on Google’s Chrome browser that the plaintiffs said gave users a false sense that what they were surfing online was not being tracked by the Silicon Valley tech firm.
However, internal Google e-mails brought forward in the lawsuit demonstrated that users using incognito mode were being followed by the search and advertising behemoth for measuring Web traffic and selling ads.
Photo: Reuters
In a court filing, the judge confirmed that lawyers for Google reached a preliminary agreement to settle the class action lawsuit — originally filed in 2020 — which claimed that “millions of individuals” had likely been affected.
Lawyers for the plaintiffs were seeking at least US$5,000 for each user it said had been tracked by the firm’s Google Analytics or Ad Manager services even when in the private browsing mode and not logged into their Google account.
This would have amounted to at least US$5 billion, although the settlement amount would likely not reach that figure, and no amount was given for the preliminary settlement between the parties.
Google and lawyers for the consumers did not respond to a request for comment.
The settlement came just weeks after Google was refused a request that the case be decided by a judge. A jury trial was set to begin next year.
The lawsuit, filed in a California court, claimed Google’s practices had infringed on users’ privacy by “intentionally” deceiving them with the incognito option.
The original complaint alleged that Google and its employees had been given the “power to learn intimate details about individuals’ lives, interests and Internet usage.”
“Google has made itself an unaccountable trove of information so detailed and expansive that George Orwell could never have dreamed it,” it added.
A formal settlement is expected for court approval by Feb. 24.
Class action lawsuits have become the main venue to challenge big tech companies on data privacy matters in the US, which lacks a comprehensive law on the handling of personal data.
In August, Google paid US$23 million to settle a long-running case over giving third-parties access to user search data.
Last year, Facebook parent company Meta settled a similar case, agreeing to pay US$725 million over the handling of user data.
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un sent Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) greetings with what appeared to be restrained rhetoric that comes as Pyongyang moves closer to Russia and depends less on its long-time Asian ally. Kim wished “the Chinese people greater success in building a modern socialist country,” in a reply message to Xi for his congratulations on North Korea’s birthday, the state-run Korean Central News Agency reported yesterday. The 190-word dispatch had little of the florid language that had been a staple of their correspondence, which has declined significantly this year, an analysis by Seoul-based specialist service NK Pro showed. It said
On an island of windswept tundra in the Bering Sea, hundreds of miles from mainland Alaska, a resident sitting outside their home saw — well, did they see it? They were pretty sure they saw it — a rat. The purported sighting would not have gotten attention in many places around the world, but it caused a stir on Saint Paul Island, which is part of the Pribilof Islands, a birding haven sometimes called the “Galapagos of the north” for its diversity of life. That is because rats that stow away on vessels can quickly populate and overrun remote islands, devastating bird
‘CLOSER TO THE END’: The Ukrainian leader said in an interview that only from a ‘strong position’ can Ukraine push Russian President Vladimir Putin ‘to stop the war’ Decisive actions by the US now could hasten the end of the Russian war against Ukraine next year, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Monday after telling ABC News that his nation was “closer to the end of the war.” “Now, at the end of the year, we have a real opportunity to strengthen cooperation between Ukraine and the United States,” Zelenskiy said in a post on Telegram after meeting with a bipartisan delegation from the US Congress. “Decisive action now could hasten the just end of Russian aggression against Ukraine next year,” he wrote. Zelenskiy is in the US for the UN
A 64-year-old US woman took her own life inside a controversial suicide capsule at a Swiss woodland retreat, with Swiss police on Tuesday saying several people had been arrested. The space-age looking Sarco capsule, which fills with nitrogen and causes death by hypoxia, was used on Monday outside a village near the German border. The portable human-sized pod, self-operated by a button inside, has raised a host of legal and ethical questions in Switzerland. Active euthanasia is banned in the country, but assisted dying has been legal for decades. On the same day it was used, Swiss Department of Home