Google Incognit-no, Wall Street Blues, Netflix’s Golden Goose

Welcome back to the Daily Courant, your afternoon guide to the latest reporting from Puck.

Today, we lead with Eriq Gardner’s masterful dissection of the “Incognito mode” legal drama that could cost Google billions—and deliver David Boies another multimillion-dollar payday.

Then, below the fold, Gardner swings by The Powers That Be to reveal the eye-popping hourly rate charged by the plaintiffs’ lawyers. William D. Cohan takes stock of Wall Street’s recession forecast. And Matt Belloni breaks down the record-breaking numbers behind the return of Netflix’s biggest sci-fi hit.

Video footage of Pichai’s congressional testimony may play differently if ever shown to a jury. That could happen in a case that centers on how Google collects and uses data from those who have turned on the private “Incognito” mode on the company’s Chrome web browser. The plaintiffs estimate billions of dollars in damages from the interception of private browsing information that includes sexual interests and political views, and thanks to a judge’s recent order sanctioning Google for discovery misconduct, the tech giant may find it more difficult to defeat the suit. In fact, because of this rather extraordinary sanctioning, should the case get to trial, the jury could hear about Google’s efforts to hide key witnesses and evidence.

But let’s be honest, the good class actions tend to settle. This one in particular has the potential to be very good (Texas even brought a copycat lawsuit last month), so before it maybe goes away quietly, let me share what’s been happening—and what could happen next...