Google settles $5 billion lawsuit over consumer privacy

Alphabet’s Google has agreed to settle a lawsuit accusing it of discreetly monitoring the Internet usage of millions of people who believed they were browsing secretly.

According to Reuters, Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers of a District Court in California on Thursday postponed a hearing scheduled for February 5, 2024 to consider a proposed class action lawsuit, after lawyers for Google and consumers said they had reached a preliminary settlement.

The lawsuit seeks at least $5 billion. The terms of the settlement were not disclosed, but the lawyers said they agreed to a binding term sheet through mediation, and expect to submit a formal settlement for court approval by February 24, 2024.

Prosecutors said that Google’s analytics, cookies, and applications allowed it to track their activity even when they activated the “incognito browsing” feature on the Google Chrome browser or activated the “private” browsing mode on other browsers.

They pointed out that this allowed Google to access a treasure trove of information about them by learning about their friends, hobbies, favorite foods, shopping habits, and “potentially embarrassing things” they search for online.