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$5 billion Google lawsuit over ‘incognito mode’ tracking moves a step closer to trial
(www.theverge.com)
this post was submitted on 08 Aug 2023
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Privacy
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People still don't know what the incognito mode does, huh
The name is blatantly misleading. The very definition of the term "incognito" means having one's true identity concealed, so I can't blame anyone with comprehension of the English language for being misled at a glance. However, like anyone else here, I do not expect this to lead to any actual progress toward more privacy.
I strongly agree, the name should be something that better reflects what it does. Evidently, many people are being misled by it.
Maybe that could be grounds for a lawsuit. After all, deliberate manipulation of users to leech as much data as possible is certainly not something Google is afraid to do, so it stands to reason that this is what they're doing with incognito mode, too.
The names of the similar features in other browsers aren't much better but most browsers are pretty clear about what it protects against and what it does not protect against.
Chrome mentions that it doesn't hide you from the websites you go to on the incognito window new tab page and their documention:
https://support.google.com/chrome/answer/95464
They've also had mentions that it doesn't protect against everything since at least 2013:
Edge mentions it on their InPrivate window new tab page and their documentation:
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-edge/browse-inprivate-in-microsoft-edge-cd2c9a48-0bc4-b98e-5e46-ac40c84e27e2
Firefox mentions it on their private browsing window new tab page and their documentation (and highlights it actually):
https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/private-browsing-use-firefox-without-history
Safari doesn't mention it in either place from what I can tell:
https://support.apple.com/guide/safari/browse-privately-ibrw1069/mac
True, but it also explicitly states on the incognito new tab page that it doesn't prevent tracking. Personally, I don't see Google losing this case.
Does it not add to your history so you can search sketchy or embarrassing things? I never thought they weren't tracking my rewatches of BLACK MEAT ANAL HEAT 6, just that the phrase wouldn't show up in my search history or recently visited. I'm not going to NOT rewatch a classic like that, but I don't need it popping up in my history when I'm about to give a presentation
Exactly that. It doesn't save any history, and that's pretty much it.
What does it do?
It opens a separate session in the browser and prevents saving any cookies, history or other state locally when you close it. Doesn't change a blessed thing on the other end of the connection.
Most browsers even tell the users that, very clearly. I hate Google with a burning passion, but this lawsuit is just dumb.
To be fair most of the class action lawsuits these days are "dumb." It's important to still fight these or else nothing will change. It's a check valve on businesses and the government to prevent them from being completely unaccountable and harming entire populations of people.
They named the feature incorrectly, then they only updated the language and explained it properly after people got in trouble or hurt because they thought it meant something different. That to me sounds like malice or at least negligence to me.
Yes the suit sounds dumb initially. However if you think about how the average person might have been misled this does sound like Google needs to be held accountable.
Also in the past I've observed that the Google indexing bot will visit a site right after a Chrome user visits the site. So if Googlebot knows nothing about abc123.com and then a Chrome user visits it, then suddenly Googlebot is crawling the site. I wonder if that happens when the Chrome user is in incognito mode?
Adding to what the other person said.
The main purpose of it is if you’re sharing the computer with someone else. You don’t need to worry about your kink searches showing up in the search history (or whatever you don’t want other people in the household to know about).
This isn't about every website tracking you regardless. Chrome kept logging browsing information even in incognito mode.
To be more accurate: Google websites kept logging browsing information, even when using Chrome's Incognito mode.
Ideally, a website shouldn't be able to detect whether the browser is in private browsing/incognito modes at all. We've already seen news sites using the ability to detect private browsing to enforce paywalls for example.