This is the epilogue of a series that has lasted for four years now. On Monday April 1, Google agreed to destroy billions of its users’ data records, as part of an agreement reached with several plaintiffs. The latter had accused the famous search engine of collecting their data via the private browsing mode of the Chrome browser, despite what the name of this option, “Incognito”, suggested.
“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 plaintiffs’ lawyers say in the agreement filed in a San Francisco court.
A historic milestone
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 in this way.” , indicates the document.
Google has committed to “immediately” reformulating the notice displayed in Incognito mode, to “inform users that it collects private browsing data”. The company must also block third-party cookies by default, in Incognito mode, for a period of five years. Thus, “Google will collect less data from users’ private browsing sessions” and it will “earn less money from this data”, explained the plaintiffs’ lawyers.
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”.