The lawsuit accuses Google of tracking Chrome users’ internet activity even when they had switched the browser to ‘Incognito’ mode, a setting which is supposed to shield a user from being tracked.
Google has agreed to delete billions of personal records collected from millions of people through its Chrome web browser as part of a settlement agreement in a lawsuit in the United States.
The lawsuit accused Google of tracking Chrome users’ internet activity even when they had switched the browser to “Incognito” mode, which is supposed to stop a user from being tracked. The details of the deal were revealed on Monday, over three months after Google and its lawyers said they had resolved a lawsuit brought in June 2020.
This lawsuit focused on the privacy controls of Google’s Chrome web browser. The settlement requires Google to delete billions of personal records stored in its data centres. It also needs to make clearer privacy disclosures about Chrome’s Incognito mode when it is activated.
This data deletion also applies outside the US. The agreement also puts other controls in place designed to limit Google’s collection of personal information. While Google supports the deal, it disputes the claims as “meritless”. It said it was only required to “delete old personal technical data that was never associated with an individual and was never used for any form of personalisation”.
On the other hand, lawyers representing Chrome users described the settlement as a big win for personal privacy in an age of increasing digital surveillance, according to court papers. The settlement is estimated to be worth between £3.77billion and £6.2billion, based on potential ad sales that could have been generated from the personal data collected through Chrome in the past.
