Google has reached a confidential settlement to resolve a lawsuit alleging that the company secretly tracked the online activity of millions of users who believed they were browsing privately.
The lawsuit, filed in 2020 and seeking at least $5 billion, alleged that Google, through analytics, cookies and applications, continued to track user activity, even in private browsing modes like incognito mode.
According to the plaintiffs, this turned Google into a repository of highly valuable information about preferences, habits, and potentially sensitive online searches.
The judge at the time rejected Google’s attempt to dismiss the lawsuit, saying she could not accept that users would give their consent to allow the company to collect so much information about their browsing activity.
This practice transformed Google into an “irresponsible information repository”
The settlement now provisionally resolves the lawsuit, which involved millions of users since June 2016 — seeking at least $5,000 in damages per user — and sought compensation for violations of federal wiretapping and California privacy laws.
There is no doubt that this case puts on the table, once again, the importance of privacy and transparency in the management of online data by large technology companies. It is clear the responsibility of these companies in the protection of user data and even more so when they are supposed to be using a Google mode that does not collect your information.
At a time when online privacy is becoming increasingly crucial, the outcome of this lawsuit will certainly influence future transparency practices and laws in the tech industry, with Google serving as a prime example of what not to do.
