Google has recently been involved in a lawsuit regarding the incognito user data sharing and now because of the famous lawsuit against it, it will have to be deleting billions of data records on users’ private browsing, mainly on the incognito port as part of a settlement resolving a major privacy lawsuit.
Based on the court filings on April 1, the proposed settlement and lawsuit against the mega corporation now requires Google Inc to make major changes like blocking third-party cookie tracking on Chrome browser’s incognito mode, a big trouble and a hassle for them as it enables thousands of cookies to function even in private data browsing sessions like incognito.
Why was Google sued?
In June 2020, the peak of Covid, Google was hit with a lawsuit accusing the tech giant of illegally invading the privacy of millions of users.
The hook of the complaint was that Google was illegally tracking people’s internet use and browsing habits to get data, even when they used “private” browsing modes like Incognito in Chrome browser by the company.
The lawsuit alleged that Google Inc was secretly collecting data about what sites users visited, where they browsed, and highly personal information like their credentials , while users thought they were browsing anonymously. They have figuratively used incognito mode as a facade for gaing secret insights into users data and where their interests lie.
The plaintiffs that had argued that Google could not “continue to engage in the unauthorised data collection from virtually every American” and sought at least $5 billion in damages for violations of federal wiretapping and California privacy laws, a heavy price tag for using user data
Notable changes brought about by the lawsuit
Earlier this year, Google quietly updated the disclosures that show upon opening a new incognito tab on Chrome about the data collected during private browsing sessions.
Chrome now says users can “browse more privately” rather than claiming to allow “private browsing.” a big step for the company as this now restricts them to understand user patterns and now may risk showing data that is not relevant to the users
Meanwhile, as part of the new settlement, Google will delete billions of data records reflecting the private browsing activities of users covered by the publicised lawsuit. In addition, the company will also have to block third-party tracking cookies by default in Incognito mode.
Let’s hope this will be a positive development for the users whose data might have been leaked because of this action.
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