Google to Settle Lawsuit by , Destroying Billions of Private Browsing Records.
In 2020, Google was sued by numerous
users who claimed that the tech giant
secretly tracked their internet use despite
browsing in Chrome's incognito mode.
The plaintiffs claim that this allowed
Google to be an "unaccountable trove
of information," 'The Guardian' reports.
To settle the lawsuit, Google has agreed
to destroy billions of private records.
The company will also update
its "private" browsing disclosures. .
Additionally, incognito users will be
able to "block third-party cookies for
five years," 'The Guardian' reports.
The result is that Google will
collect less data from users’ private
browsing sessions, and that Google
will make less money from the data, Plaintiffs' lawyer, via 'The Guardian'.
While Google supports the settlement, it
does not agree with the "legal and factual characterizations" put forth by the plaintiffs.
We are limited in how strongly we
can market Incognito because it’s
not truly private, thus requiring
really fuzzy, hedging language
that is almost more damaging. , Google’s chief marketing officer, Lorraine Twohill,
wrote to the CEO, Sundar Pichai, in 2019, via 'The Guardian'.
A lawyer for the plaintiffs called
the agreement "a historic step in
requiring honesty and accountability
from dominant technology companies.".
While plaintiffs will not receive damages as part of this settlement, they could still sue individually to be monetarily compensated.