Google will destroy the data stored by millions of users while they surf the Internet under the terms of an agreement reached on Monday to end a legal battle over personal privacy.
The class action lawsuit, filed in 2020, focuses on the Incognito mode in Google’s Chrome browser, which gives users the impression that they are not being tracked by the online search conglomerate, which plaintiffs say is false.
They blame the number of posts published online around the world and that they were misled by the way Chrome directed people who used this private browsing option.
“Plaintiffs’ efforts resulted in them obtaining key admissions from Google employees, including documents that described Incognito as “a lie in practice,” “a problem of professional ethics and basic integrity,” and “a marketplace ripe for confusion.” attorneys said in a settlement filed Monday in San Francisco court.
If the settlement is approved by Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers in July, Google will avoid legal action but will be forced to “delete and/or correct billions of data records” collected during online browsing from people using Google.Incognito.
“This agreement represents a historic step because it requires dominant technology companies to be honest in their statements to users about how they collect and use their data, and to delete data so collected,” the document said.
Google has committed to “immediately” restate the information available about Incognito mode to “inform users that it collects private browsing data.”
In addition, the company must by default block third-party cookies in Incognito mode – those computer programs that are used, among other things, to track users across the Internet and target their advertising. Google has already begun a move to end these much-criticized programs.
The agreement does not provide for compensation, whereas the lawsuit filed in 2020 sought five billion dollars.
But it preserves the ability for Chrome users who feel harmed to sue Google individually.
The original complaint accused Google of having “become an inexplicable treasure trove of information so detailed and vast that even George Orwell could not have dreamed of it.”
Author: Lusa
Source: CM Jornal
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