Google is a money-making internet machine fueled by your personal data. Most of the time, Google is upfront about when and how it's collecting all that personal data, but Chrome's Incognito Mode is a different story. An ongoing class action lawsuit has accused Google of misleading users about how much information it hoovers up when they switch to Incognito. The case is now ending, but don't expect a check in the mail. Google will delete some data, though.
Incognito Mode has been in Chrome since version 1.0 in 2008. Initially, Google's description of the feature was vague, but it made it sound like Google would not collect data from Incognito sessions. In reality, the "incognito" aspect just refers to the browsing history, cookies, and other digital footprints that are usually saved to your device. Google knew about this misconception and let it continue for years.
Lawyers for the class have valued the settlement agreement between $4.75 billion and $7.8 billion, but that's just a theoretical calculation. No cash is involved—this is the estimated value of the user data that Google has agreed to destroy as part of the settlement. Interestingly, Google initially claimed it could not separate the anonymized Incognito data from other browsing data. The search giant has changed its tune now, though.
The Incognito data won't vanish right away. The judge is expected to approve the settlement this summer as both parties are in agreement. When that happens, Google will go to work purging IP addresses and removing full URLs. It will only keep the domain portion, so it won't know which pages an Incognito user visited. The plaintiffs' lawyers say this agreement means Google will make less money from user data, and people toggling on Incognito Mode will have greater privacy.
Google is also painting this as a win, and its argument feels a bit more grounded. "The plaintiffs originally wanted $5 billion and are receiving zero," Google's José Castañeda told Ars Technica. Google says it does not object to deleting the data because it wasn't very useful and was never used to personalize any experiences. So, you should not notice any change to how your Google account works when all this data goes poof. Google has also agreed to limit the amount of data it collects over the next five years.
While there is no money, the settlement grants class members (that's all of us) the option to bring individual cases against Google through arbitration. Although the class lawyers note the potential for significant statutory damages, arbitration favors corporate interests, and the anonymized nature of the data will make it difficult for any individual to prove injury. If nothing else, this case gave Google the nudge it needed to be more truthful about how Incognito Mode works. The feature now clearly indicates what data Google and websites may still collect, and it defaults to blocking third-party cookies.
