In order to resolve a lawsuit alleging that it surreptitiously monitored the internet activity of users who believed they were surfing in private, Google agreed to delete billions of data records.

The terms of the settlement were submitted to the federal court in Oakland, California on Monday, and U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers must approve them.

Plaintiffs’ attorneys estimated the agreement’s worth at over $5 billion and as much as $7.8 billion. Users have the option to sue Google individually for damages, but the firm is not paying any.

Millions of Google users who have utilised private browsing since June 1, 2016, are included by the class action, which started in 2020.

People claimed that Google improperly tracked users who turned their Chrome browser to “Incognito” mode and other browsers to “private” browsing mode, using Google’s analytics, cookies, and apps.

individuals claimed that by allowing Google to learn about their acquaintances, favourite cuisines, pastimes, shopping patterns, and the “most intimate and potentially embarrassing things” individuals look for online, this transformed Google into a “unaccountable trove of information”.

As part of the settlement, Google will—as it has already started—update its disclosures on the data it gathers during “private” surfing. Additionally, it will grant users of Incognito a five-year restriction on third-party cookies.

“The result is that Google will collect less data from users’ private browsing sessions, and that Google will make less money from the data,” the plaintiffs’ lawyers wrote.

Google, which has long seen the lawsuit as baseless, was happy to reach a settlement, according to Google spokesman Jose Castaneda.

Monday saw a sharp decline in shares of Donald Trump’s social media company following the announcement of a net loss exceeding $58 million for the previous year.

“We never associate data with users when they use Incognito mode,” Castaneda said. “We are happy to delete old technical data that was never associated with an individual and was never used for any form of personalization.”

The settlement was hailed in a statement by plaintiffs’ attorney David Boies as “a historic step in requiring honesty and accountability from dominant technology companies.”

In December, a preliminary settlement was struck, preventing the trial that was slated for February 5, 2024. At the time, terms weren’t disclosed. Later on, the plaintiffs’ attorneys intend to demand an undisclosed amount of legal expenses from Google.

Alphabet is headquartered in California’s Mountain View.

The case is Brown et al v Google LLC et al, U.S. District Court, Northern District of California, No. 20-03664.

(Adapted from ThePrint.in)