Google agrees to destroy browsing data collected in incognito mode

Google will now delete millions of user’s data for the settlement of a class-action lawsuit. The company has now agreed to delete the browsing data against a lawsuit that claims the company tracks the browsing history even in incognito mode.

This lawsuit was filed in 2020, alleged the Alphabet Inc. unit secretly collects the data using its Chrome browser even when people are browsing privately using incognito mode. As per the suit advanced technology like advertising is scooping their data while they are browsing privately using the Chrome browser.

The terms of the settlement are disclosed publicly on Monday in the Oakland, California federal court. As a part of this settlement, Google will now disclose more about what it records in incognito mode. Also, incognito users can now block third parties for five years.

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One of the Google spokespersons, Jose Castaneda, said in his statement “We are pleased to settle this lawsuit, which we always believed was meritless”. “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.” he continued.

In their lawsuit, the plaintiffs accused Google that the company has misled their users. While browsing in private mode, users thought that their browsing data was safe and the browser was not collecting their information. But Google’s parent company Alphabet was improperly tracking the users in private mode using cookies, apps, and analytics.

The users claim that Google is tracking a vast amount of their personal data including their friends, favorite foods, hobbies, shopping habits, and the “most intimate and potentially embarrassing things” they look for online.

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The plaintiffs asked for $5 billion in damages, the settlement includes no payment from Google. The Plaintiff’s lawyer said that individuals can file their own complaints against Google to pursue the damages.

After this settlement, Google will now collect less amount of data. “The result is that Google will collect less data from users’ private browsing sessions and that Google will make less money from the data,” the plaintiffs’ lawyers wrote.

“There has been a steady drumbeat of complaints, lawsuits, and regulatory action centered on companies collecting or sharing customer data in unexpected ways,” said Stephanie Liu, a senior analyst at Forrester. “The rise of privacy-oriented class action lawsuits and complaints shows consumers are increasingly privacy savvy and taking action.”