Google agrees to settle $5bn lawsuit claiming it secretly tracked users

Plaintiffs allege their activity was tracked even when they set Chrome to incognito' and other browsers to private' mode

Google has agreed to settle a lawsuit claiming it secretly tracked the internet use of millions of people who thought they were doing their browsing privately.

US district judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers in Oakland, California, put a scheduled trial in the proposed class action, which was due to begin in February, on hold on Thursday after lawyers for Google and for consumers said they had reached the preliminary settlement.