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Google agreed to settle a $5 billion (€4.5 billion) privacy lawsuit that alleges the tech multinational collected personal data even when users were in “private browsing mode”.

The private mode on Google’s Chrome browser is called the “incognito mode”.

The class-action lawsuit said Google misled users into believing it wouldn’t track their internet activities while using the private mode.

It alleges that when a user accessed a website running Google’s technologies, the company continued to track the users’ site visits and activities despite being in “private” browsing mode.

Plaintiffs also charged that Google’s activities yielded an “unaccountable trove of information” about users who thought they’d taken steps to protect their privacy.

The settlement, reached last week, must still be approved by a federal judge in the US.

Terms weren’t disclosed, but the suit originally sought $5 billion on behalf of users; lawyers for the plaintiffs said they expect to present the court with a final settlement agreement by February 24.

Google did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the settlement.