Ever used Google Chrome in incognito mode? You could be entitled to up to $5,000 compensation – here’s how to claim it

Attorneys have put out an open call for users to join their class action lawsuit against Google for any privacy rights violated by its Chrome browser’s ‘incognito mode.’

Plaintiffs’ attorneys announced on X that any user of the Chrome browser who went ‘incognito’ between 2016 and 2023 ‘may be entitled to up to $5,000 compensation based on California statutory damages available for privacy violations.’

At the heart of the civil action is the claim that Google collected incognito users’ personal information without their permission, even after these users chose not to synchronize their browsers with their Google accounts, like Gmail. 

Although the case was brought to court under California’s Invasion of Privacy Act — as Google’s ‘terms of service’ specify California law as the governing law for its firm’s activities — any and all Google Chrome users across America may qualify.

Here’s what you need to know to join the class action, and how you and any other ‘incognito mode’ users you know can determine whether or not you qualify.

One plaintiff’s attorney – Don Bivens of Arizona – announced on social media site X that any Chrome users who went ‘incognito’ between 2016 and 2023 ‘may be entitled to up to $5,000 compensation based on California statutory damages available for privacy violations’

The revived class action follows a US appeals court decision issued last week,  Tuesday, Aug 20th, which declared that Chrome users who claim that Google collected their personal information without permission can sue for damages.

The suit, which had initially sought at least $5 billion, has been on pause since late in December 2023, following a preliminary settlement.

Scottsdale, Arizona-based lawyer Don Bivens, who put out the call for new plaintiffs last week, joins a host of firms suing Google over issues with its ostensibly ‘privacy protecting’ browser feature, incognito mode. 

This past April, the law firm behind the original litigation filed in 2020, Boies Schiller Flexner, Susman Godfrey and Morgan & Morgan, demanded $217 million in legal fees just for their own work crafting the aforementioned settlement with Google.

According to Bloomberg Law, these lawyers claimed that they had worked a staggering 78,880 cumulative hours on the case. 

Bivens in Arizona filed his own class action suit on behalf of California resident Katherine Wilson one month later, on May 24, 2024.  

‘There is no cost to join,’ according to the sign-up page hosted by Bevins firm.

‘In a contingent fee case, attorneys only receive payment if your claim is successful, with no upfront costs or fees for you to file.’ 

The form on Bivens’ site only takes two minutes to fill out, the lawyer said. 

Last week, the 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco decided that the lower court judge who had previously dismissed the proposed class action should have assessed whether reasonable Chrome users had actually consented to letting Google collect their data when they browsed online.

The new 9th Circuit appeals ruling, a 3-0 decision, came despite Google’s agreement last year to destroy billions of records to settle the original lawsuit.

Neither Google nor its lawyers responded to requests for comment.

The lower court judge had concluded that Google’s general privacy policy allowing data collection governed, because the Mountain View, California-based firm have collected the plaintiffs’ information regardless of which browsers they used.

Above, a 2018 image of fliers handed out at the start of the 35th Chaos Communication Congress (35c3), a hacker convention held in Leipzip, Germany

Last December, Google agreed to settle a lawsuit claiming it secretly tracked the internet use of millions of people who thought they were doing their browsing privately using ‘incognito’

In Tuesday’s decision, Circuit Judge Milan Smith called that focus misplaced.

‘Here, Google had a general privacy disclosure yet promoted Chrome by suggesting that certain information would not be sent to Google unless a user turned on sync,’ Smith wrote. ‘A reasonable user would not necessarily understand that they were consenting to the data collection at issue.’

Google’s settlement related to Incognito let users sue the company individually for damages. Tens of thousands of users in California alone have since done so in that state’s courts.

Matthew Wessler, another lawyer for the plaintiffs, said he was pleased with the decision and looked forward to a trial.