Internal communications within the company underscored concerns for several years that users were being misled about the level of privacy offered by Incognito mode.
New Plaintiffs Emerge
Attorneys representing the consumers hailed the settlement as a historic move towards holding tech giants accountable for their actions.
David Boies, representing the consumers said “The settlement stops Google from surreptitiously collecting user data worth, by Google’s own estimates, billions of dollars. “
Google spokesperson José Castañeda claimed, “We are pleased to settle this lawsuit, which we always believed was meritless. The plaintiffs originally wanted $5 billion and are receiving zero. We never associate data with users when they use Incognito mode. We are happy to delete old technical data that was never associated with an individual and was never used for any form of personalization.”
The settlement opens avenues for individual claims against Google, with 50 plaintiffs already filing in California state court. They are all seeking damages.
