Google has agreed to delete billions of data records as part of a settlement for a lawsuit accusing the tech giant of improperly tracking web-browsing habits of users who thought they were browsing the internet privately.
The lawsuit was filed in 2020 and accused Google of misrepresenting the kind of data it collects from users who browsed the internet via "Incognito" private browsing mode in Chrome. Google agreed to settle the suit late last year, but the terms of the settlement were first disclosed in a filing on Monday.
As part of the settlement, Google must delete "billions of data records" that reflect the private browsing activities of users in the class action suit. Google will also update its disclosure to inform users about what data it collects each time a user initiates a private browsing session. For the next five years, Google will let private browsing users block third-party cookies and no longer track people's choices to browse the internet privately. David Boies, the attorney representing the consumer plaintiffs, called the settlement "a historic step in requiring honesty and accountability from dominant technology companies."