In the United States, David succeeded in bringing down Goliath. Google will destroy data collected from millions of users while they browse online, under the terms of an agreement reached Monday to end lawsuits over the confidentiality of personal information.
The class action filed in 2020 focused on “Incognito” mode on Chrome, Google’s browser, which gives users the impression that they are not being tracked by the online search giant – wrongly, according to the plaintiffs. . They accuse the world’s number one digital advertising company of misleading them about how Chrome tracked people using this private browsing option.
Justice must still give its approval
“Plaintiffs’ efforts elicited key admissions from Google employees, including documents describing Incognito as ‘a lie in practice,’ a ‘problem of business ethics and basic honesty,’ and a ‘confusing mess,'” the lawyers say in the agreement filed Monday in a San Francisco court.
If approved by Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers in July, Google will avoid a trial but must “delete and/or remediate billions of data records” collected while people are browsing online using Incognito mode. “This agreement is a historic milestone because it requires dominant technology companies to be honest in their disclosures to users about how they collect and use user data, and to delete the data collected.” , indicates the document.
Google has committed to “immediately” reformulating the notice displayed on Incognito mode, to “inform users that it collects private browsing data”. The company must also block third-party cookies by default, in Incognito mode.
“Even George Orwell could never have dreamed of it”
The agreement, however, does not provide for the payment of compensation, while the complaint filed in 2020 demanded $5 billion. But it leaves the option for Chrome users who feel wronged to sue Google separately for money.
“We are pleased to put an end to proceedings that we have always believed to be unfounded,” said Jorge Castaneda, Google spokesperson. “We are happy to remove old technical data that has never been associated with individuals and has never been used for any form of personalization.” The initial complaint still accused Google of having “transformed itself into an unaccountable mine of information, information so detailed and so vast that even George Orwell could never have dreamed of it”.