Google has committed to removing billions of records that contain personal information gathered from over 136 million individuals who use its Chrome web browser in the United States as a result of a lawsuit settlement over alleged illegal surveillance practices.
The agreement's specifics surfaced in a court filing on Monday, over three months after Google and the attorneys overseeing the class-action lawsuit announced that they had resolved a lawsuit filed in June 2020 that focused on Chrome's privacy controls.
Google's Illegal Surveillance Through Incognito
In addition to other claims, the lawsuit alleged that Google tracked the internet activity of Chrome users even when they had activated the browser's Incognito mode, which is intended to protect them from being monitored by the company based in Mountain View, California.
Google vigorously contested the lawsuit until U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers declined a request to dismiss the case in August last year, paving the way for a potential trial. Negotiations ensued over the next four months, leading to the culmination of a settlement. The terms were disclosed on Monday, which Rogers still needs to approve at a hearing scheduled for July 30 in Oakland, California's federal court.
The Lawsuit's Settlement
As part of the settlement, Google must delete billions of personal records stored in its data centers and enhance the visibility of privacy disclosures related to Chrome's Incognito mode when activated. The settlement also imposes various measures to restrict Google's personal information collection. In the settlement, consumers in the class-action lawsuit will not receive any damages or other payments, a detail that Google underscored in a statement released on Monday regarding the agreement.
Google expressed satisfaction in settling the lawsuit, which it deemed meritless. The company clarified that it is only mandated to delete old technical data that was never linked to an individual or utilized for personalization purposes.
In court documents, the attorneys representing Chrome users portrayed the settlement as a significant win for personal privacy amidst the growing landscape of digital surveillance. The attorneys estimated the settlement's value to be between four billion seven hundred fifty million dollars and seven billion eight hundred million dollars, primarily calculated based on potential advertising revenue that could have been generated from the personal information collected through Chrome, both in the past and future, had the new restrictions not been implemented.
The settlement does not also provide Google with immunity from further lawsuits on the same issues addressed in the class-action case, where individual consumers can seek damages against the company by filing their civil complaints in state courts across the United States.
Investors seem unworried by the settlement terms potentially impacting digital ad sales, which constitute over three hundred billion dollars in annual revenue earned by Google's parent company, Alphabet Inc., whose shares surged by 3% to reach a closing price of $155.49 on Monday, resulting in a market value of one trillion nine hundred billion dollars for the company.
Austin Chambers, a legal expert specializing in data privacy matters at the firm Dorsey & Whitney, characterized the settlement terms in the Chrome case as a welcome development that could influence the future collection of personal information online, where companies could be prevented from profiting off of that data while requiring them to undertake complex and costly data purging efforts, which could have a dramatic impact on products built around those datasets.
Series of Legal Battles Google is Facing
Google continues to confront legal challenges on the regulatory front that, depending on the resulting outcomes, could have a much greater impact on its business.
Following the U.S. Justice Department's presentation of allegations that Google is exploiting the dominance of its search engine to stifle competition and innovation during a trial last fall, a federal judge is slated to hear closing arguments in the case on May 1 before issuing a ruling expected in the autumn.
Google is also confronting potential modifications to its app store for smartphones running on its Android software, which could diminish its commission revenue. This comes after a federal jury last year determined that the company was operating an illegal monopoly. A hearing to explore potential revisions that Google may need to implement for its Play Store is scheduled for late May.
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