Google attempted to suppress a lawsuit against its third-party cookie use. The lawsuit is that Google secretly keeps track of its users’ online data usage even in the ‘incognito mode, which in actual is designed to go anonymous, as per Google’s claim. However, proven otherwise.
Google tracks its users’ data in the normal web-mode and uses it for several purposes. However, this shouldn’t be done in incognito mode. The users who filed an ‘A-class case against Google said that Google tracks users’ data when they are in private mode with several other tools.
“The court concludes that Google did not notify users that Google engages in the alleged data collection while the user is in private browsing mode,” US District Judge Lucy Koh in San Jose, California, stated in her court decision.
These tools gather users’ data and still keep on storing personal information. Whereas Google claims to its users that the mode turns off data collection and its systems would behave as in private data mode.
The search engine giant company, in their defense, didn’t come up with a counterargument at first. Instead, Google asked the federal judge to kill the case before it progresses further.
The decline of Google’s request to throw the case down has intensified the situation. The law-makers aren’t going any easy on this one, as the company took advantage of illegal data gathering practices.
The search giant now has said that it will take care of the ‘third-party cookies’ by next year. The systems then won’t entertain the advertisers to keep track of consumers’ web usage. It also stated that it wouldn’t use other methods like third-party cookies to keep track of users anymore.
“We strongly dispute these claims, and we will defend ourselves vigorously against them,” An official from Google, Jose Castaneda, said in an emailed statement. “Incognito mode in Chrome gives you a choice to browse the internet without your activity being saved to your browser or device. As we clearly state, each time you open a new incognito tab, websites might be able to collect information about your browsing activity during your session.”
Three complainants filed a case against Google in June that stressed the search giants’ false data tracking practices. As per the filed case, its search in private mode is no different from searching in the normal web-mode.
“Google knows who your friends are, what your hobbies are, what you like to eat, what movies you watch, where and when you like to shop, what your favorite vacation destinations are, what your favorite color is, and even the most intimate and potentially embarrassing things you browse on the internet – regardless of whether you follow Google’s advice to keep your activities ‘private,'” as stated in the complaint.
Google, in its defense, said that “plaintiffs consented to its privacy policy, which the company stated entirely cuts off the data collection tools.
“Google also makes clear that ‘Incognito’ does not mean ‘invisible,’ and that the user’s activity during that session may be visible to websites they visit, and any third-party analytics or ads services the visited websites use,” Google said in its counterargument.
