Google to destroy 'secretly collected Incognito data' over $5 billion lawsuit
A preliminary deal agreed in december 2023 avoided the trial, which was originally planned to take place in February. The specifics of the settlement, nevertheless, were not made public at the time.
Google's analytics, cookies, and applications, according to a Reuters news agency article, "let the Alphabet unit improperly track people who set Google's Chrome browser to 'Incognito' mode and other browsers to 'private' browsing mode," according to the customers, who have the right to sue the company individually.
As per the complaint, google is required to disclose the data it gathers from "private" browsing and provide "Incognito" users the ability to automatically block third-party monitoring cookies for the next five years.
David Boies, the plaintiffs' attorney, described the deal as a "historic step in requiring honesty and accountability from dominant technology companies" in a statement to The Wall Street Journal.
According to Castaneda, "We never associate data with users when they use Incognito mode," the Reuters news agency reported.
"We are happy to delete old technical data that was never associated with an individual and was never used for any form of personalisation."