591
$5 billion Google lawsuit over ‘incognito mode’ tracking moves a step closer to trial
(www.theverge.com)
this post was submitted on 08 Aug 2023
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Privacy
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Privacy has become a very important issue in modern society, with companies and governments constantly abusing their power, more and more people are waking up to the importance of digital privacy.
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Am I reading this right? As far as I can see, the complaint seems to be that Google would be "tracking" people even if they browse in any browser's incognito mode.
Of course they do. If I open a private window in Firefox, and then login to Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Reddit, or any other website, these websites can try to track me. How would any browser control what happens or doesn't happen on the server side of things?
These plaintiffs would be better off sueing the companies of these websites for ignoring privacy laws and continuing to add tracking scripts to their sites.
Yes, there are browsers that try to send as little personal information as possible, like the Tor Browser, but even that one can't disable a Facebook server's internal logging data - how could it? All modern browsers make it quite clear what their respective incognito mode does - and what it doesn't do.
You’re missing the fact that Google is both the company behind the most popular browser used to access content on the internet and the most popular website on the internet. Their browser says incognito mode offers protections that their website then runs roughshod over. They’re the perfect company to sue over this because the website can’t shift blame to the browser and the browser can’t shift blame to the website.
That's the point of my comment. I won't say "don't sue Google", I'll say "sue Google, but actually read what it says when you open an incognito window". Offers protections against other people who use this device. And that's it.