Alphabet Inc’s Google GOOGL has agreed to resolve a 2020 class-action lawsuit for $5 billion. The suit accused the tech behemoth of tracking user activity through its Chrome browser’s incognito mode, raising significant privacy concerns.
What Happened: The core of the lawsuit was the allegation that Google deceived users about the privacy of their internet activities in incognito mode.
Despite users’ expectations of privacy, the lawsuit argued that Google continued to amass detailed user data through its advertising technologies and collaborations with third-party sites using Google Analytics or Google Ad Manager, Insider reports.
Plaintiffs accused Google of amassing an “unaccountable trove of information” on users who believed they had safeguarded their privacy by utilizing the ‘incognito’ browsing mode.
While the specific terms of the settlement remain undisclosed, it still awaits approval from a federal judge.
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The lawsuit initially sought to represent a broad group of users who believed their privacy had been infringed upon, with the plaintiffs’ lawyers planning to present the final settlement agreement by Feb. 24.
In the wake of this lawsuit and increasing concerns over user privacy, Google has announced a shift in its advertising strategy.
The company has committed to stopping the tracking of individual users across the web, and has also announced plans to phase out third-party cookies in Chrome by 2022.
Despite this commitment, recent reports suggest that Google has not fully eliminated third-party cookies yet, but aims to do so by the second half of 2024.
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