In case you thought that was totally private
Bad news: Google’s apparently been storing your Chrome incognito browsing data.
Good news. They’ve finally agreed to delete it.
In a court document filed Monday (April 1) and spotted by BGR, Google has agreed to settle a nearly four-year-old class-action suit that challenged Google’s private browsing (a.k.a. “Incognito Mode) data collection policies.
The original lawsuit claimed, “Google tracks and collects consumer browsing history and other web activity data no matter what safeguards consumers undertake to protect their data privacy…even when Google users launch a web browser with ‘private browsing mode’ activated…Google nevertheless tracks the users’ browsing data and other identifying information.”
Google didn’t entirely deny the claims, stating in 2020 that while incognito browsing mode data isn’t saved locally, “websites might be able to collect information about your browsing activity during your session.”
Now, the search giant has, in principle at least, agreed to several adjustments in its messaging, data collection, and storage practices.
