Google has agreed to settle a US lawsuit claiming that it violated customers' privacy by following them even while they were using "private mode" on their browsers.
The class action demanded at least $5 billion (£3.9 billion) from Alphabet, the world's leading search engine.
Large technology businesses' actions have come under growing scrutiny in the United States and elsewhere.
Lawyers for Google and its users did not immediately reply to demands for comment from the BBC.
On Thursday, US District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers postponed the case's scheduled trial in California after lawyers announced a tentative deal.
Judge Rogers had earlier this year rejected Google's request to dismiss the lawsuit, stating that she did not accept that consumers agreed to Google collecting information on their browsing activities.
The settlement details were not disclosed. Lawyers are scheduled to propose a formal settlement for approval by the court by February 2024.
The class action, launched in 2020 by the legal firm Boies Schiller Flexner, claimed that Google tracked users' behavior even when they used the Google Chrome browser in "Incognito" mode and other browsers in "private mode."
It said that as a result of this, Google has become an "unaccountable trove of information" on user preferences and "potentially embarrassing things."
It added that Google could not "continue to collect covert and unauthorized data from virtually every American with a computer or phone."
Google stated that it was clear about the data it gathered while users watched in private mode, despite the fact that many users presumed otherwise.
The collecting of search data, even in private viewing mode, according to the search engine, lets site owners "better evaluate the performance of their content, products, marketing, and more."
Incognito mode in Google's Chrome browser allows users to search the internet without having their activity recorded on the browser or device. However, websites that are visited can utilize technologies like Google Analytics to track usage.