As part of a planned legal settlement, Google has consented to remove billions of records and limit its ability to track users.
The agreement attempts to settle a class action lawsuit filed in the US in 2020, accusing the tech giant of violating users’ privacy by gathering data even when they were using “private mode” on their browsers.
The lawsuit requested $5 billion in damages.
Despite contesting the allegations, Google is in favor of the agreement. In response to the case, it has already made adjustments. Outside of the US, data destruction will likewise be implemented.
In January, the corporation revised its disclosures to clarify that it continued to gather user data even when users chose to use its “Incognito” setting or search anonymously, soon after the two parties announced preparations to resolve the matter.
Because it doesn’t save browser history on the device, that mode offers a little more privacy.
That same month, the firm claimed it was starting to trial a technology that would automatically block third-party cookies, which assist in tracking user activity, for all Google Chrome users.
The provisions of the settlement agreement, which was filed on Monday in federal court in San Francisco, state that it has committed to guaranteeing that the limit is in place for five years and that it has made the limitation automatic for Incognito users immediately after the lawsuit was filed in 2020.
According to the court petition, Google also consented on Monday to remove “hundreds of billions” of private browsing data records that it had gathered.
