Google has agreed to destroy “billions of data points” it amassed over several years while users were browsing in Chrome’s Incognito mode. The move is part of the settlement of a class-action lawsuit filed in 2020, accusing the company of tracking users even in private browsing mode.
Monday’s settlement, filed in a California federal court, also requires Google to update its data collection disclosures and maintain a default setting that blocks third-party cookies in Chrome for the next five years.
“We are pleased to settle this lawsuit, which we always believed was meritless,” Google spokesperson Jose Castaneda said in a statement, according to The Hill. “We never associate data with users when they use incognito mode. We are happy to delete old technical data that was never associated with an individual and was never used for any form of personalization.”
Incognito Doesn’t Mean Complete Privacy
Under the terms of the settlement, Google must wipe the personal data of users it collected while they were browsing in Incognito mode, revise its privacy disclosures, and enhance its controls to allow users to disable third-party cookies in Incognito mode.
Most browsers offer a form of private browsing mode, such as Incognito mode in Google Chrome, Private Browsing in Firefox, or InPrivate Browsing in Microsoft Edge. The main purpose of these modes is to allow users to access the internet without leaving traces of their online activity.
Contrary to the widely held belief that no user data is collected or stored in Incognito mode, in January, Google clarified that this private browsing mode does not hide your online activity from websites, network administrators, internet service providers, or Google. It only prevents your browser from storing cookies, browsing history, and other data on your device.
The Significance of the Settlement
The settlement sidesteps direct financial compensation for users but opens the door for individual claims, with attorneys for the plaintiffs already pursuing legal action on behalf of individuals in California.
Legal experts say the settlement is a significant step towards ensuring transparency and accountability from technology behemoths like Google.
“This settlement is a historic step in requiring dominant technology companies to be honest in their representations to users about how the companies collect and employ user data, and to delete and remediate data collected,” the court documents said.
The settlement agreement requires final approval from Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers.
How to Improve Your Privacy on Chrome
To significantly lower the risks associated with Google’s online tracking and data collection, we recommend you:
- Regularly review Chrome’s privacy and security settings to understand and control what data Google is collecting. Pay special attention to cookies, site data, permissions, and related settings.
- Enable Chrome’s enhanced protection features for safer browsing and improved phishing and malware detection. This protects you from threats by checking sites and downloads against Google’s updated list of unsafe websites.
- Install one of our top-rated privacy extensions that block trackers and prevent fingerprinting.
- Beyond relying on Incognito mode, manually clear your browsing history, cookies, and cached data regularly to minimize data accumulation on your browser.
- Install our leading VPN (virtual private network), NordVPN, to make it more difficult for Big Tech to profile and target you based on your web activity.
- Consider switching to one of our top privacy-friendly browsers, such as Firefox or Brave, which offer built-in tools to enhance your privacy without extensive customization.
Read our in-depth analysis of what Google knows about you for more valuable privacy tips.
For more news, follow us on X (Twitter), Threads, and Mastodon!
