Google announced that the company is willing to destroy billions of data records to settle the consumer privacy lawsuit.
In the document, Google was accused of secretly tracking the internet records of people who used private browsing through Chrome's Incognito.
Google Faces Consumer Privacy Lawsuit Against Incognito Records
The class action lawsuit started in 2020 and covered millions of Google users who used its private browsing services since June 2016. Affected users alleged that Google has been tracking people that turn into the Incognito mode and other private browsers.
Google tried to refute the claims but U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzales Rogers rejected the request to dismiss the case. Over the next four months, the settlement was negotiated.
The recent settlement terms suggested that Google would purge billions of records, including personal information, from over 136 million users of Chrome web browser in the U.S. The company will have to wait for Rogers' approval during the scheduled hearing on July 30.
Google Awaits Approval on Settlement Terms
Under the settlement, Google also pledged to update disclosures about the data collected in "private" browsing. This process has reportedly already started rolling out.
Moreover, Incognito users will be allowed to block third-party cookies for up to five years. Meanwhile, the plaintiffs' lawyers hoped that the result would affect Google's revenue from using such data.
The lawyers had a valued settlement of $4.75 billion to $7.8 billion which was based on the potential ad sales that Google got from collecting the personal information from its users.
As for Google, the company explained that it is only required to "delete old personal technical data that was never associated with an individual and was never used for any form of personalization." The company is also eager to settle this lawsuit, describing it as "meritless."
