Google has settled a $5 billion class action lawsuit filed by people who alleged the company violated their right to privacy. Under the terms of the deal, which were revealed in court filings in an Oakland, California federal court, Google has agreed to destroy the internet browsing data of billions of users worldwide that it collected over the years.
Operator of the world’s most popular search engine and web browser, and one of the largest companies in the world, Google has long been criticized for using its free services, like its search engine and e mail, to garner personal information on the billions who use the. Google and other companies like Facebook have charged with violating their users’ privacy by not only collecting such data, but also selling it to marketers and using it for targeted advertisements.
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Just do a Google search for a new refrigerator a few times and browse a few websites that sell appliances. Soon enough, you will be inundated with ads for refrigerators and other major appliances when you surf the web.
“This settlement is an historic step in requiring dominant technology companies to be honest in their representations to users about how the companies collect and employ user data, and to delete and remediate data collected,” reads the settlement filing. “This settlement ensures real accountability and transparency from the world’s largest data collector and marks an important step toward improving and upholding our right to privacy on the Internet.”
Google spokesman Jose Castaneda said “We never associate data with users when they use Incognito mode (the private mode that does not save browsing history). We are happy to delete old technical data that was never associated with an individual and was never used for any form of personalization.”
David Boies, a lawyer for the plaintiffs, called this, “a historic step in requiring honesty and accountability from dominant technology companies.”
“The result is that Google will collect less data from users’ private browsing sessions, and that Google will make less money from the data,” said the plaintiff’s lawyers.
This settlement came just a few months after Google agreed to pay out $700 million in a suit brought by multiple states in America over the firm’s requirement that third party app developers can only sell their services through Google’s app store.
Google is still facing other lawsuits.
