A judge in California ruled that Google must face a class-action lawsuit claiming the technology conglomerate continued to gather data from users who used “incognito” mode on the Chrome browser. There have been questions about how much data the tech giant collects from users through advertisements, cookies, and other data collection services.

Google offered incognito mode as an option in the Chrome browser. Some users claim it is not protecting data as advertised and filed a class-action lawsuit against Alphabet in June 2020. The lawsuit contends that users who used incognito mode still had their information tracked and intercepted by Google despite the browser claiming otherwise. The lawsuit seeks at least $5 billion in compensation or $5,000 for each user potentially affected by this practice.