According to the complaint, Google tricked users into believing they had control over the information they shared.
Google was accused of following the activity of Chrome users even when they were using the Incognito mode in the year 2020, which resulted in the company being faced with a lawsuit. Currently, the corporation has decided to settle the complaint that initially sought damages in the amount of $5 billion. This comes after the company’s attempt to have it dismissed was unsuccessful. Reuters and The Washington Post have reported that neither party has disclosed the specifics of the settlement to the public. However, both parties have already reached an agreement on the terms of the settlement, which they will present to the court for approval in February.
When the plaintiffs filed the action, they stated that Google conducted user monitoring through the use of several methods, including its Analytics product, applications, and browser plug-ins. They came to the conclusion that the corporation was misleading individuals into believing that they had control over the information that they were prepared to give with it by tracking someone while they were using the Incognito mode without their knowledge. A spokeswoman for Google stated at the time that even though Incognito mode does not save a user’s activity on their device, websites could nevertheless capture the user’s information when they are using the mode.
The plaintiffs in the complaint produced internal emails that allegedly showed talks between executives at Google. These emails were claimed as evidence that the firm monitored the use of the Incognito browser in order to sell advertisements and measure web traffic. They demanded that Google pay them up to $5,000 for each customer who was affected by their complaint, which accused the company of breaking federal wiretapping rules as well as California privacy regulations. They stated that millions of customers who had been using Incognito since 2016 had probably been harmed, which is what explains the enormous damages that they were asking from the firm. It is quite likely that Google has reached a settlement agreement for a sum that is less than $5 billion; however, the company has not yet disclosed any information regarding the arrangement, and it has not yet provided Newtechmania with an official statement.