Google has been accused of invading the privacy of millions of users of its browser, Chrome, by collecting their data even when they take measures to protect their privacy, such as browsing using Chrome’s incognito or private mode. The class-action lawsuit is $ 5 billion.
According to the lawsuit, filed in a court in California, United States, the company would be illegally violating the privacy of its users even when they navigate in incognito mode, the Chrome function that the company ensures allows browsing without the risk that your data is saved or collected by the browser or by the same device you access, and even the sites you have visited are not registered.
But the plaintiffs assure that, even so, Google would be registering that information using other tools (such as Google Analytics and Google Ad Manager, according to the document filed with the court), which would allow them to know which pages users visit incognito and what They consume content in order to learn from their interests, something that usually allows them to offer more personalized advertisements.
For its part, Google has denied these accusations in statements to Reuters. The company ensures that they do not collect user data in incognito mode, however, they also explain that “as we mentioned every time you open a tab in incognito mode, some web pages may be able to collect information about your activity when browsing” . However, attorneys representing the plaintiffs believe the company “intentionally misleads consumers.” Google, unsurprisingly, also says it will defend itself against this lawsuit in court.