Google has agreed to settle a massive lawsuit that claimes it secretly tracked the internet use of millions of people who thought they were doing their browsing privately while using the Incognito function. Via the Guardian:

US district judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers in Oakland, California, put a scheduled trial in the proposed class action, which was due to begin in February, on hold on Thursday after lawyers for Google and for consumers said they had reached the preliminary settlement.

The lawsuit had sought at least $5bn. Settlement terms were not disclosed, but the lawyers said they have agreed to a binding term sheet through mediation, and expected to present a formal settlement for court approval by 24 February 2024.

Neither Google nor lawyers for the plaintiff consumers immediately responded to requests for comment.

The plaintiffs alleged that Google’s analytics, cookies and apps let the Alphabet unit track their activity even when they set Google’s Chrome browser to “incognito” mode and other browsers to “private” browsing mode.