A federal appeals court on Tuesday signed off on a controversial $8.5 million deal that Google Inc. reached to settle a class action claiming the company shared information about users’ search queries without their consent.

The deal, approved by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, provides no money to the 129 million class members, but the lawyers who brought the case are due to receive nearly $2.1 million. About $5 million in funds will be split among six nonprofit groups.


Ted Frank