A judge is “upset” to find that even users browsing in private mode are tracked.
When Google users browse in “Incognito” mode, how hidden is their activity?
The Alphabet Inc. unit says that enabling stealth mode in Chrome, or “private browsing” in other browsers, means that the company will not “remember your activity”. But a judge with a history of censoring Silicon Valley giants about his data collection raised doubts on Thursday about whether Google is being as open as necessary about the personal information it is collecting from users.
At a hearing on Thursday in San Jose, California, US District Judge Lucy Koh said she was “disturbed” by Google’s data collection practices, as described in a class action claim that the private browsing promises of Google company are a “stratagem”. The lawsuit seeks compensation of $ 5,000 for each of the millions of people whose privacy has been compromised since June 2016.
Weighing Google’s attempt to get the case closed, Koh said he found it “unusual” for the company to make an “extra effort” in collecting data if it did not use the information to build user profiles or targeted advertising.
Google became the target of antitrust complaints last year, made by state and federal officials – as well as companies – accusing it of abusing its domain in digital advertising and online research. Koh has a deep history with the company as a vocal critic of its privacy policies. In one notable case, she forced Google to disclose its email verification to build profiles and target advertising.
In that case, Google is accused of relying on parts of its code on sites that use its analytics and advertising services to scrape users’ supposedly private browsing history and send copies to Google’s servers.
Google makes it look like the private browsing mode gives users more control over their data, said Amanda Bonn, a lawyer who represents users, Koh. In reality, “Google is saying that there is basically very little you can do to prevent us from collecting your data, and that is what you should assume we are doing,” said Bonn.
Company Disclosure
Google argues that every time people use Chrome’s private browsing mode, a full page warning makes it clear that others who use the device will not see your activity – but that it may still be visible to, among others, sites that visit and your Internet service provider.
Andrew Schapiro, a Google lawyer, said the company’s privacy policy “expressly reveals” its practices. “The data collection in question is made public,” he said.
Another Google lawyer, Stephen Broome, said website owners who hire the company to use analytics or other services are well aware of the data collection described in the lawsuit.
Broome’s attempt to minimize privacy concerns by pointing out that the federal court system’s own website uses Google services has ended up failing.
The judge demanded an explanation “about what exactly Google does”, while expressing concern that visitors to the court’s website are inadvertently disclosing information to the company.
“I want a statement from Google about what information they are collecting about users of the court’s website and what it is used for,” Koh told the company’s lawyers.
The case is Brown v. Google, 20-cv-03664, US District Court, Northern California District (San Jose).