In the United States, Google is currently in the sights of a large-scale collective complaint which supposes that the firm would continue to collect data during the sessions in incognito mode, making anonymity of the user impossible.
Is Google’s incognito mode really so incognito that it looks like? According to a group of complainants in the United States, this is not the case. In a collective complaint filed with the California court, they denounce Google to deceive users and continue to collect data even when they go into incognito mode on Google Chrome. They are now claiming $ 5 billion in compensation from the Mountain View firm. The complaint explains that “Google continues to track, collect and identify surfing data from Internet users in real-time, in violation of federal and state eavesdropping laws and in violation of consumers’ right to privacy”, even during a private browsing session. Worse, according to the complaint, the Californian firm would deceive “intentionally consumers” by making them believe that they are really anonymous when they go into incognito mode. Several elements are mentioned, such as data collection – even in private browsing – via various applications with which users connect with their Google accounts, but also Google Analytics or Google Ad Manager.
Where does this titanic sum of 5 billion that the complainants claim from Google come from? This amount is taken from a calculation based on the claims of the complainants. They demand indeed “at least 5000 dollars” per user as damages, while claiming that “millions” of people would have been so cheated by the incognito mode of Chrome. Result: if the justice found in favor of the plaintiffs, Google will have to pay 5 billion dollars. At Google, we defend ourselves against the complaint. A spokesperson stressed that the case was not really one, since“As we can read each time we open a new Incognito tab, sites may be able to collect data on your browsing activity” , and this, even in private browsing. This complaint could nevertheless change the situation, at a time when the different modes of private browsing present on web browsers continue to collect browsing data, rendering the anonymity of the user obsolete. This complaint could revive the debate on the creation of a really incognito mode.