Google Incognito Mode

As Bloomberg reports, Judge Lucy Koh has denied Google's request to dismiss the class action case. Koh determined that Google "did not notify" users it was still collecting data while Incognito's privacy mode was active, giving the plaintiffs enough ground to move forward with their case. Incognito mode's limitations are well-known among enthusiasts - it's really there to keep sites out of your local search history and cookies, not to block all potentially identifying traffic.

The law firm Boies Schiller & Flexner has filed a class-action lawsuit in California claiming that Google continues to track users in the incognito mode of Google Chrome. The lawsuit claims that the incognito mode would "intentionally deceive consumers" by suggesting that no tracking would happen, while analytics data is still sent to websites via Google Analytics and Google Ad Manager. The law firm seeks a minimum of $5 billion in damages. Google themselves stated that they "strongly dispute these claims and we will defend ourselves vigorously against them".