Google will destroy users’ browsing data to settle a $5 billion privacy lawsuit about its “incognito” browsing, according to federal court filings.
The 2020 class action lawsuit accused the search engine of illegally collecting millions of users’ data without their knowledge while they used incognito mode. The suit alleged that Google was secretly amassing data from users when they thought their browsing was private.
The settlement was first announced last December, but the specific details of the settlement were revealed Monday in new court filings.
Now, Google must delete billions of data records that are older than nine months, the filing states.
As part of the settlement, Google also agreed to inform users that it collects data in incognito mode, and make it so third-party trackers are turned off by default when using the feature.
Details of the settlement were first reported by The Wall Street Journal.
