Google incognito mode: The company is settling a $5 billion lawsuit over privacy violations

Google has opted to settle a $5 billion privacy lawsuit accusing the tech giant of ‘spying’ on people who used its incognito mode on Chrome and other browsers and tracked their internet use. Google had tried to get the lawsuit dismissed but a judge ruled against it. It is in fact not the first time Google is sued for privacy issues nor will this be the last as consumers grow more aware of the importance and value for their online habits and preferences in a growing market that incrementally turns them into a product.

The nature of the lawsuit

The plaintiffs filed the lawsuit alleging that Google used Analytics tools and plugins to monitor internet usage under a mode which they claimed would prevent this. The reasoning being that this is considered false advertising as the company falsely made users believe they could control the information shared with the browser when this was in fact not the case.

The evidence provided by the plaintiffs included internal emails of conversations between Google executives that not only proved Google was indeed monitoring incognito mode usage but also that their aim was to use this information to sell ads and monitor web traffic. According to the court documents:

Whenever a user visits a website that is running Google analytics, Ad manager, or some similar Google service, Google’s software directs the user’s browser to send a separate communication to Google.

This happens even when users are in private browsing mode, unbeknownst to website developers or users themselves.

As such the plaintiffs argue that Google has broken US federal wiretapping laws and California state privacy laws.

What does this mean for the average user?

Google’s incognito mode or any private browsing mode do not hide data from trackers on the web. Their primary function is to keep the information of that specific browsing session saved temporarily within the confines of the session itself to be deleted immediately with no trace of it on the local device which was used to browse.

With that being said that session is ‘incognito’ to the device not the internet service provider, website trackers or the browser itself. Users must understand that their internet usage leaves a distinct digital footprint that can be tranced by many parties. Furthermore, any website visited has specific ways to farm information about the user from cookies to preferences and even cpu threads, screen resolution and far more.

The issue of privacy will keep being raised as more essential services transition online and it is imperative that users increase their literacy of what their online habits reveal about them, and most importantly to whom that information is revealed.

Read more:

⋙ Google sued again for collecting data without consent, here's what we know

⋙ Google Chrome: Unsecure extensions posing as VPNs threaten your privacy, here's what to do

Sources:

Endgadget: Google agrees to settle $5 billion lawsuit accusing it of tracking incognito users