US technology company Google, part of Alphabet Inc., has agreed to settle a lawsuit alleging that its search engine secretly tracked the internet browsing history of millions of users who thought they had protected privacy.
Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers in Oakland, California, decided to temporarily suspend the class-action trial scheduled for February 5, 2024, after lawyers for Google and lawyers representing users announced a preliminary settlement had been reached.
The plaintiffs are seeking at least $5 billion in damages in the case. Terms of the settlement have not been released, but lawyers said they have agreed to a binding written agreement through an intermediary and hope to formally notify the court of the agreement by February 24, 2024. The parties have not yet commented publicly.
The plaintiffs allege that Google’s analytics tools and apps allow the search engine to track users’ activity even when Google’s Chrome browser is set to “incognito” mode and other browsers are set to “private” browsing mode. The lawsuit, filed in 2020, includes millions of Google users since June 1, 2016.
LAM DIEN
Source
Comment (0)