Bad news: Google apparently saved your Chrome incognito browsing data.
Good news. They finally agreed to remove it.
In a court document filed on Monday (April 1) and noted by BGRGoogle has agreed to settle a nearly four-year-old class action lawsuit challenging Google’s private browsing data collection policy (also known as “incognito mode”).
The original lawsuit claimed: “Google tracks and collects consumers’ browsing history and other web activity data, regardless of what safeguards consumers undertake to protect their data privacy… even when Google users launch a web browser with ‘private browsing mode’ enabled… Google nevertheless, tracks users’ browsing data and other identifying information.”
Google did not completely deny the claims, stating in 2020 that while the data in incognito browsing mode is not stored locally, “websites may collect information about your browsing activity during your session.”
Now, the search giant has at least agreed in principle to a number of adjustments in its messaging, data collection and storage practices. However, if you thought this class action lawsuit could result in a small check landing in your home, you may be disappointed. The filing states that there will be “no release of monetary claims,” although individuals retain the right to sue Google for damages.
Among the changes Google will agree to when it goes to trial on July 30:
- Deletion or recovery of all collected data
- Rewrite the disclosures in the incognito browser
- Google must add the ability to block third-party cookies by default in incognito mode at least in the next five years.
- Google should remove private browsing detection bits.
While this is probably good news and a big problem (Chrome currently has a market share of over 65% in the browser), the fact that incognito browsing never meant what you thought it did can be unnerving for some users.
Now no one is judging what you browse in incognito mode, but it’s probably a good guideline to stop assuming that whatever you see while browsing in that mode is somehow not detected or “seen” by others .
It’s not like random people or Google employees are looking at your browser history. Instead, Google does what it always does: act as a data intermediary to enable ad targeting and some continuity in your browsing experience, either through Google or through partners who use cookies to ensure that what you see on subsequent pages reflects what you viewed on the previous page.
While the filing notes that Google has already implemented some of these changes, it is not clear whether the messages on the incognito splash pages have changed.
At the top, it reminds you that others using the same device cannot see your browsing history and notes that Chrome does not store browsing history, cookies, and form information in this mode. However, it is also noted that your activity may be visible to the sites you visit, to someone in control of your account (a school or employer), and to your Internet service provider.
It is not clear whether the changes that Google will make will have any influence on this.
As for Google’s position on all this, the settlement notes that “Google supports final approval of the settlement, but disagrees with the legal and factual characterizations in the motion.”
