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.
