Google has accepted to resolve a lawsuit in June 2020 which claimed that the company had deceived users by tracking their browsing activity while they thought their Internet use remained private when they used “incognito” or “private” mode in web browsers.
What was (and hypothetically still would be) the problem with Google Chrome
There collective cause sought at least $5 billion in damages; However, the terms of the compensation regarding the technology giant have not yet been disclosed.
The plaintiffs had argued that the tech giant had infringed federal wiretap laws and had tracked user activity using Google Analytics to collect information when they were in private mode.
They said this allowed the company to gather an “uncontrollable amount of information” on users who thought they had taken adequate steps to protect their online privacy.
Google later tried to get the lawsuit dismissed by highlighting the message that appears when users turn on Chrome's incognito mode, which informs users that their activity may still be visible to the websites they visit, their employer or school, or their Internet service provider.
It `s important to note that Turning on incognito or private mode in a web browser only allows users to search the Internet without their activity being saved locally in the browserbut you'll see this shortly.
That said, websites that use advertising technologies and analytics APIs they can still continue to track users during that incognito session and they can further correlate that activity, for example, by matching their IP addresses.
“Google's motion is based on the idea that the plaintiffs consented to Google to collect their data while they browsed in private mode“, ruled US District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers, and it was then added that “since Google has never explicitly told users that it does, the Court cannot establish as a matter of law that users have explicitly consented to the collection of the data in question“.
The origin of the misunderstanding
Many people misunderstand “incognito” mode by thinking it means “they won't track me”, but is not so.
Enabling incognito mode in a web browser gives users the ability to browse the Internet without their activity being stored locally in the browser, this is actually very useful if you don't want cookies to remain and want to visit pages with mandatory cookies without problems.
However, it is important to note that this mode does not guarantee complete anonymity; Websites that use advertising technologies and analytics APIs can still track user activity during the incognito session and correlate that information.
The recent lawsuit against Google highlighted that the company was accused of tracking users' activity even when they were in incognito mode, leading to a misunderstanding by users who thought they were browsing completely privately.
For complete anonymity, special precautions are needed, one above all the VPN, but this is not the place; thereIt must be said that 100% anonymity on the internet is very difficult to be obtained without very specific computer knowledge, too many times I have heard phrases like “we use Telegram [o altri servizi alternativi a caso]that's all it takes for sure”, ignoring that Telegram, for example, already requires the phone number which is personal data.
Nowadays the most popular services still require at least one real personal data, although it is true that I can sign up with a fake name on social media, it is not uncommon for them to require confirmation with a telephone number or whatever.
While this may be beside the point of the Google lawsuit, it is very important to understand how and when you are truly anonymous or these “gaffes” will be commonplace.
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