On June 3, according to Reuters, Google was hit with a class-action lawsuit on Tuesday: it was accused of tracking users’ internet usage through Chrome set to “Incognito” mode, violating the privacy of millions of users.
The lawsuit was filed in federal court in San Jose, California, seeking at least $5 billion in damages from Google. The plaintiffs say that even when users use Incognito mode, Google still collects information about the web pages they browse.
According to the New York Times, the plaintiffs are three Google users: Chasom Brown and Maria Nguyen of Los Angeles, and William Byatt of Florida. The lawsuit was filed by the well-known law firm Boies Schiller Flexner LLP.
The above report also says the lawsuit argues that Google violated a California law requiring the consent of all parties before reading and understanding the contents of private communications.
The lawsuit documents say that regardless of whether users click on Google’s ads, Google collects user data through Google Analytics, Google Ad Manager, and other applications and web plugins. This lets Google learn about users’ friends, hobbies, favorite foods, shopping habits, and even their most private matters.
According to the New York Times, Google spokesperson Jose Castaneda said the company will defend itself. He said: “Incognito mode in Chrome lets you browse without saving your activity to your browser or device, but as we’ve made clear, every time you open a new Incognito tab, the websites you visit may collect information about your browsing activity during that session.”
Although users think browsing in Incognito mode is safe, computer security experts and researchers are concerned that Google and similar companies may track people’s browsing activity across different browsing modes, combining the data with browsing data from normal mode to expand users’ profiles.