After a 12-year legal battle, Google has agreed to pay $23 million to settle a class action lawsuit brought by consumers who claimed that the company's search engine shared their queries with advertisers or other third parties without their permission. Originally filed in 2010, the lawsuit alleged that when a Google user clicked on a link in search results, the site shared the search terms entered with third parties, potentially revealing personal information about the searcher. According to the suit, advertisers pay Google to see what search terms led consumers to a particular page.

The world is cracking down on data privacy. How will you get ahead?