Judge approves Google RTB settlement forcing new user privacy control

Source Domain: ppc.land

A federal judge this week granted final approval to a class-action settlement requiring Google to introduce a new user control that limits the personal data the company shares duringreal-time bidding (RTB) auctions – a case that has wound through the courts for nearly five years and that carries direct consequences for how programmatic advertising functions at scale.

United States District Court Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers, sitting in the Northern District of California, signed the order today, March 26, 2026, in the case styled In re Google RTB Consumer Privacy Litigation, Case No. 4:21-cv-02155-YGR. The settlement is for injunctive relief only: no class member other than the named plaintiffs receives monetary compensation. What they do receive is a mechanism, described in court documents as the “RTB Control,” that gives them the ability to limit what Google broadcasts about them to the hundreds of companies participating in its advertising auctions.

The ruling closes a lawsuit that began on March 26, 2021, when a complaint was first filed in Hewitt v. Google LLC. Cases were consolidated into the present litigation in June 2021. Google’s motion to dismiss was largely denied in June 2022. Plaintiffs sought class certification in July 2023, a motion the court denied without prejudice. The parties then reached a settlement ahead of the renewed certification deadline of September 2, 2025.

What the RTB Control actually does

According to the Settlement Agreement filed with the court, Google will provide all Settlement Class Members with the ability to limit the information it provides to third parties about them in the Google RTB system. The control will be available at both the account level and the browser level.

When activated, the RTB Control strips RTB bid requests of identifying data. Coverage from September 2025 detailed the technical implications: the control removes encrypted Google User IDs, device advertising IDs, IP addresses, and…

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