2020 lawsuit accused Google of tracking incognito activity, tying it to users' profiles.

Google agrees to settle Chrome incognito mode class action lawsuit::2020 lawsuit accused Google of tracking incognito activity, tying it to users’ profiles.

  • AutoTL;DR@lemmings.worldBEnglish
    0·
    2 years ago

    This is the best summary I could come up with:

    Google has indicated that it is ready to settle a class-action lawsuit filed in 2020 over its Chrome browser’s Incognito mode.

    Arising in the Northern District of California, the lawsuit accused Google of continuing to “track, collect, and identify [users’] browsing data in real time” even when they had opened a new Incognito window.

    It also alleged that sites using Google Analytics or Ad Manager collected information from browsers in Incognito mode, including web page content, device data, and IP address.

    Google initially attempted to have the lawsuit dismissed by pointing to the message displayed when users turned on Chrome’s incognito mode.

    Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers rejected Google’s bid for summary judgement in August, pointing out that Google never revealed to its users that data collection continued even while surfing in Incognito mode.

    According to the notice filed on Tuesday, Google and the plaintiffs have agreed to terms that will result in the litigation being dismissed.

    The original article contains 289 words, the summary contains 156 words. Saved 46%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!

  • vexikron@lemmy.zipEnglish
    0·
    2 years ago

    And yet we /still/ have people who assume that a corporation that routinely pulls shit like this, that has more or less complete control over your Android phone, default to tying everything on your phone to your Google account, and then also put an enormous amount of effort to making the default easiest option to log in to nearly any online service or app also be your Google account…

    …we still have people that do not believe that the phones are always listening when seemingly any website or app you use gives you advertisements about what you were just talking about in the other room with the phone locked.

    Its possible to go in and reset or delete your advertising id and use firefox and deny hardware access to every possible google process you can without breaking the OS to stop this, but 1) the capability to eavesdrop shouldnt even exist 2) it should be disclosed /plainly/ 3) it should be waaaaay easier to disable.

    • chaorace@lemmy.sdf.orgEnglish
      0·
      2 years ago

      we still have people that do not believe that the phones are always listening when seemingly any website or app you use gives you advertisements about what you were just talking about in the other room with the phone locked.

      Oh come on. Don’t bring this into conspiracy territory. Yes, eavesdropping does happen, but it’s not something an uncompromised Android phone will do when locked. Even when it does happen in the case of spyware, the people doing it aren’t selling your transcriptions to advertisers.

      People should still opt out of as many of GAPS’s spyware-like features as possible, as you suggest, but not because it’s a special anti-listening-device warding spell.

  • Stache_@lemmy.mlEnglish
    0·
    2 years ago

    Wait, so when I politely “ask app not to track”, they might still be tracking me? No way!

  • hh93@lemm.eeEnglish
    0·
    2 years ago

    I always assumed incognito was just disabling history and cookies.