Class Action
Brown v. Google (Incognito)
Brown v. Google LLC
Where it stands
Injunctive-relief settlement filed April 1, 2024 before Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers: Google agreed to delete billions of private-browsing records, rewrite Incognito disclosures, block third-party cookies by default in Incognito for five years, and stop using private-browsing detection signals. There is no settlement fund, no claim form and no payment to class members; individual damages claims were preserved. Class counsel's roughly $217 million fee request drew judicial skepticism. On April 20, 2026 the Ninth Circuit affirmed the denial of intervention by approximately 185 Chrome users who sought to protect damages claims.
Key ruling
December 2022 order certifying a Rule 23(b)(2) injunctive class of ~136 million users while refusing to certify a damages class — the structural fact that produced a deletion-only settlement rather than a cash fund.
What is not confirmed
A final-approval order was not locatable in the public sources reviewed even though the fairness hearing was set for July 30, 2024; treat the settlement as agreed and substantially implemented rather than confirmed-final. No monetary settlement figure exists — the $217 million figure circulating in coverage is a fee request, not a class fund.The record
- Court
- U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California
- Case number
- 4:20-cv-03664-YGR
- Filed
- 2020-06
- Defendants
- Google LLC · Alphabet Inc.
- Plaintiffs
- Rule 23(b)(2) injunctive class of roughly 136 million Google account holders who, since June 1, 2016, visited non-Google websites containing Google tracking code while browsing in Chrome Incognito mode or the private-browsing mode of another browser.
- Technology at issue
- Google Chrome Incognito mode; Google Analytics, Ad Manager and other Google tags on third-party sites
- Relief sought
- Injunctive relief and data deletion; the operative complaint sought federal Wiretap Act and CIPA statutory damages ($5,000 per violation) before the damages class was denied certification.
Claims pleaded
Sources (3)
- Google Incognito Settlement: No Payout to Chrome UsersOpen Class Actions · 2026-07-29
- Google Must Delete Over 100 Billion Chrome Private Browsing RecordsForbes · 2024-04-02
- Google 'Incognito' Case Attorneys Unlikely to Win $217 MillionBloomberg Law · 2024
This page describes a publicly filed case. This site is not counsel on this matter, nothing here is legal advice, and the allegations described are allegations unless a court has said otherwise.