Google reached a plea agreement with a group of users who had accused them of not providing complete information regarding the alleged tracking in Incognito mode of your browser Chrome. This agreement will close the pending lawsuit, assuming the judge confirms the agreement next February.
Google settles for alleged Chrome Incognito tracking
The legal dispute, started in 2020 by complainingconcerned claims that Google had misleadingly advertised Chrome’s Incognito feature. Although Incognito mode does not store information such as cookies or history locally, the controversy revolved around whether this mode does not prevent tracking of the user by Google websites or services, such as using Analytics.
The overall compensation claim amounted to a considerable amount 5 billion dollars, $5,000 for each user involved. However, the financial details of the agreement reached currently remain unknown: we do not know how much Google has agreed to settle for.
The giudice Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers, last August, rejected Google’s request to end the lawsuit. According to her, the plaintiffs had presented sufficient evidence to raise doubts about how Google communicated Incognito mode features.
The plaintiffs argued that Google’s name and marketing falsely led people to believe that browsing in Incognito would improve their experience privacy online. Furthermore, they presented documentary evidence and emails indicating that Google was using user data collected while browsing in Incognito mode for purposes of personalized advertising.
This agreement could represent a pivotal moment in the online privacy debate, pushing companies to be clearer and more honest about the real implications of the features they offer. According to the complaint, the problem was not with the tracking itself, but in transparency.
