Google To Delete Browsing Data In Privacy Lawsuit Settlement!

With the advancement of technology and digitalization, providing personalized experiences has become much easier for businesses.

In fact, personalization has become an industry norm, which is why businesses use personalization platforms that can help them deliver better experiences. Furthermore, these platforms have been fitted with artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities, making the process much easier.

Another important step in the process includes tracking and observing user behavior online and what they search for.

However, despite how easy and simple the process can be made, businesses must adhere to privacy standards and regulations, especially when consumers actively choose not to be a part of such tracking activities.

This is where Google allegedly made a mistake, for which the company faced a class action lawsuit in 2020. As per the lawsuit, Google secretly tracked millions of its users since June 1, 2016, despite the users opting to use private browsing methods.

While the company has been embroiled in the legal battle for a few years, it finally reached a preliminary settlement for the case in December 2023, for which the details weren’t made public.

The move resulted in a February 5, 2024, trial being put on hold.

On April 1, 2024 (Monday), the terms of the settlement were filed in the Oakland, California federal court and there are quite a few updates regarding the lawsuit.

So, what does the settlement include for both parties? Let’s explore!
 

What Does The Settlement Entail?

 

• As per a document filed at San Francisco federal court that outlines the terms of the settlement, Google agreed to destroy billions of data records that represented people’s private browsing information.

• The release mentioned that users accused Google of improperly tracking people through its analytics, cookies and other applications who opted to use Google’s Chrome browser in “incognito” mode, as well as other browsers in “private” browsing mode.

• While Google is paying no damages, users will be allowed to sue the company individually for damages.

• However, the plaintiffs’ lawyers plan to seek remuneration of legal fees from Google later.

• As per the plaintiffs’ lawyers, around 50 people have already filed their own complaints against Google.

• Ahead of this, the plaintiffs’ lawyers believe the proposal is valued at over $5 billion and going as high as $7.8 billion.

• The lawyers said, “The result is that Google will collect less data from users' private browsing sessions, and that Google will make less money from the data.”

• As per the filed release, “This settlement is an historic step in requiring dominant technology companies to be honest in their representations to users about how the companies collect and employ user data, and to delete and remediate data collected.”

• Google also mentioned it made changes to its disclosures, explaining what activity can be viewed by websites when using “incognito” mode, as well as how such data is collected.

• The company further agreed that for the next five years, users browsing in “incognito” mode will be allowed to block third-party cookies by default.

• The document further states, “The Settlement puts a stop to this practice once and for all. Google will no longer infer private browsing using these detection bits. Google has further represented that there are no other detection bits for inferring Chrome’s Incognito mode and has further agreed to no longer use any of the detections bits to identify or track any private browsing.”

 

What Did Google Say?

 

• Speaking about the lawsuit settlement, Google spokesperson Jose Castaneda said, “We are pleased to settle this lawsuit, which we always believed was meritless.”

• [Contd.] “The plaintiffs originally wanted $5 billion and are receiving zero.”

• [Contd.] “We never associate data with users when they use incognito mode. We are happy to delete old technical data that was never associated with an individual and was never used for any form of personalization.”

Google has been facing multiple regulatory challenges worldwide due to the concerns surrounding how it uses the large amount of data it collects.

As per Stephanie Liu, a Senior Analyst at Forrester, “There has been a steady drumbeat of complaints, lawsuits, and regulatory action centred on companies collecting or sharing customer data in unexpected ways ... The rise of privacy-orientated class action lawsuits and complaints shows consumers are increasingly privacy savvy and taking action.”

Do you think Google should be held to stricter privacy standards? Do you think more users should seek damages from the company?

Let us know in the comments below!