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 related “non-public” modes in different browsers – to trace their web use.

The category-action lawsuit filed in 2020 stated 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 methods continued to catalog particulars of customers’ website visits and actions regardless of their use of supposedly “non-public” searching.

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 authorized by a federal decide. Phrases weren’t disclosed, however the swimsuit initially sought $5 billion on behalf of customers; attorneys for the plaintiffs stated they count on to current the court docket with a remaining settlement settlement by Feb. 24.

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