SAN FRANCISCO — Google has agreed to settle a $5 billion privateness lawsuit alleging that it spied on individuals who used the “incognito” mode in its Chrome browser – together with comparable “non-public” modes in different browsers – to trace their web use.

The category-action lawsuit filed in 2020 mentioned Google misled customers into believing that it wouldn’t observe their web actions whereas utilizing incognito mode. It argued that Google‘s promoting applied sciences and different strategies continued to catalog particulars of customers’ web site visits and actions regardless of their use of supposedly “non-public” shopping.

Plaintiffs additionally charged that Google‘s actions yielded an “unaccountable trove of data” about customers who thought they’d taken steps to guard their privateness.

The settlement, reached Thursday, should nonetheless be accepted by a federal decide. Phrases weren’t disclosed, however the go well with initially sought $5 billion on behalf of customers; legal professionals for the plaintiffs mentioned they count on to current the courtroom with a ultimate settlement settlement by Feb. 24.

Google didn’t instantly reply to a request for touch upon the settlement.