A lawsuit alleging that Google tracked Chrome users in “incognito mode” will continue, after Google’s motion to close the case was denied by a federal judge on Friday. Collective action Brown V. Google was submitted in June 2020 and claims that the claimant’s data was collected and tracked from June 2016 to the date of filing without consent or “legitimate business interest” while using the private browsing tool, according to Business Insider.
Google resigned based on the fact that users are informed about how their data is used, even in “incognito mode”. The company’s lawyers explained in their motion: “Google also makes it clear that ‘Incognito’ does not mean ‘invisible’ and that user activity during that session may be visible to the websites he visits, and any third party reviews or services Ads. visited websites use. “
Federal courts in the United States have been cracking down on ways in which technology giants track, collect and implement user data in the past year, as well as show monopolistic or anti-competitive behavior. A lawsuit was filed against Google in October 2020, and the Federal Trade Commission ordered nine of these companies to explain how and why they collected personal information in December. Google (along with Amazon, Facebook, Apple, Microsoft, Twitter and Uber) spent $ 65 million in lobbying costs throughout 2020, fighting these and other attempts at regulatory measures and antitrust lawsuits.
But Google has launched some self-regulatory measures. The company recently announced that it will discontinue the use of third-party cookies, which help deliver targeted ads, in Chrome: citing an “erosion of trust” for its users.