Google has agreed to settle a lawsuit claiming it secretly tracked the internet use of millions of people who thought they were doing their browsing privately. US district judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers in Oakland, California, put a scheduled trial in the proposed class action, which was due to begin in February, on hold on Thursday after lawyers for Google and for consumers said they had reached the preliminary settlement. The lawsuit had sought at least $5bn. Settlement terms were not disclosed, but the lawyers said they have agreed to a binding term sheet through mediation, and expected to present a formal settlement for court approval by 24 February 2024. Neither Google nor lawyers for the plaintiff consumers immediately responded to requests for comment. The plaintiffs alleged that Google’s analytics, cookies and apps let the Alphabet unit track their activity even when they set Google’s Chrome browser to “incognito” mode and other browsers to “private” browsing mode. US-VOTE-POLITICS-ABORTION
Activists protest during a "Bans Off Our Bodies" rally in support of abortion rights at Old Bucks County Courthouse in Doylestown, Pennsylvania on September 29, 2022. - In Pennsylvania, the northeastern US state where a tight battle for a Senate seat is shaping up that could give Republicans a majority in the Senate, Democrats have clearly identified the stakes and their campaign sometimes takes on the appearance of a referendum to save abortion rights. (Photo by ANGELA WEISS / AFP) (Photo by ANGELA WEISS/AFP via Getty Images) Googling abortion? Your details aren’t as private as you think Read more They said this turned Google into an “unaccountable trove of information” by letting the company learn about their friends, hobbies, favorite foods, shopping habits and “potentially embarrassing things” they seek out online. In August, Rogers rejected Google’s bid to dismiss the lawsuit. She said it was an open question whether Google had made a legally binding promise not to collect users’ data when they browsed in private mode. The judge cited Google’s privacy policy and other statements by the company that suggested limits on what information it might collect. Filed in 2020, the lawsuit covered “millions” of Google users since 1 June 2016, and sought at least $5,000 in damages per user for violations of federal wire-tapping and California privacy laws.