Google avoids trial for tracking activity in incognito mode, agrees to settle
A lawsuit worth five billion dollars will end with a settlement between Google and the people who sued it for tracking their incognito Internet surfing activities. In this way, by settling, Google avoids the trial, since it was due to the preliminary agreement that the giant reached with the other party, Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers postponed the trial scheduled for February 5, 2024.
With the delay, the trial in the US District Court in California has not been rescheduled, but has been put on hold until the settlement agreement is made official, Reuters writes. Terms of the settlement were not disclosed, but lawyers said they agreed to binding terms through mediation and expect to submit a formal agreement for court approval by Feb. 24, 2024.
However, neither Google nor the lawyers for the clients who filed the lawsuit have officially commented on this development.
The lawsuit that several people filed against Google in 2020 concerns the monitoring of user activities on the Internet even in incognito, i.e., mode without archiving data through its Chrome browser. They demanded compensation from the company in the amount of at least 5 billion dollars, claiming that the giant violated the privacy of millions of people in the mentioned way.
ShutterstockIn the lawsuit, they alleged that Google has turned its analytics, cookies and apps into an “incalculable storehouse of information” that allows the company to learn a wealth of information about their friends, hobbies, favorite foods, shopping habits and “potentially annoying things” they search for online. the internet.
In August of this year, Judge Rogers denied the giant's motion to dismiss the suit or for summary judgment, which brought the giant one step closer to yet another legal action where it could lose the case.
The judge then said there was an open question about whether Google had made a legally binding promise not to collect users' data when they surfed the Internet in incognito mode. At the time, Rogers cited Google's privacy policy and other company statements regarding limits on information collection.
The lawsuit covers, as it says, millions of Google users since June 1, 2016, and demands at least $5,000 in damages per user for violating US federal wiretapping laws, as well as California privacy laws. Top of Form