Google will delete its browsing history, to resolve privacy lawsuit

Google has agreed to delete billions of data records in a lawsuit over privacy monitoring, submitted to federal court for approval by U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers.

Google agreed to erase billions of data records in order to settle a lawsuit alleging that it secretly tracked customers' internet activity when they thought they were browsing in privacy. Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers of the U.S. District Court in Oakland, California, must approve the conditions of the settlement, which were submitted to the federal court on Monday. The agreement's value was assessed by the plaintiffs' counsel to be between $5 billion and $7.8 billion. Although it is not paying any damages, users are free to sue Google individually. The class action began in 2020 and covers millions of Google users who have used private browsing since June 1, 2016.

Users have accused Google of improperly tracking users who switched to "Incognito" or "private" browsing modes, using analytics, cookies, and apps to create new tabs. They claim this allowed Google to gather personal information about users, including friends, cuisines, pastimes, shopping patterns, and embarrassing searches, transforming Google into an uncontrollable information resource.

As part of the settlement, Google will improve its disclosures about the data it collects when users browse on "private" networks, something it has already begun to do. Furthermore, it will give Incognito users a five-year ban on third-party cookies. According to Google spokesman Jose Castaneda, the company was pleased to negotiate a resolution because it has long considered the litigation to be without merit.