![]() That was not enough for the judge, however. Google attempted to get the lawsuit thrown out on the basis of Chrome's Incognito explainer, a message that shows every time you start up Incognito mode and explains that "your activity might still be visible to websites you visit." The lawsuit seeks at least $5 billion, or $5,000 per violation for "likely" millions of users. The lawsuit contends that Chrome's private browsing "Incognito" mode should also stop Google's server-side tracking and that Google's failure to cease such tracking violates federal wiretap laws. Until then, stay tuned.US District Judge Lucy Koh has ruled that a class-action lawsuit against Google's Incognito tracking policies can go forward, Bloomberg reports. We will keep you updated on all future developments. It would be interesting to see whether Google too find it acceptable and park the fine amount aside just like Facebook did, or it will fight tooth and nail to get rid of it. However, it’s too early to quote any amount of fine Google could potentially face as a result of this legal battle. Funny enough, Zuckerberg reportedly made $1 billion from it too. Though the fine amount was equivalent to Facebook’s one-month revenue, the authorities faced severe criticism for slapping the penalty which hardly made any dent on Zuckerberg led social media company. Facebook was made to pay $5 billion in fine in 2019 – the biggest fine in the history of tech. The possibility of Google coughing up a whopping $5 billion in fine, reminds us of another social media behemoth known, rather accused, for violating users’ privacy and data tracking mechanism. At present, the company is busy creating new tools that would allow advertisers to analyse users’ browsing habits on their own device and then target aggregated user cohorts with similar interests. In the previous week, the search major announced that it will be moving away from individualised cross-site tracking when displaying its ads. Although it won’t be as stringent as the measures adopted by the iOS 14.5 update, it plans to limit data collection to a large extent.Īnd lastly, Google has recently announced a significant reform when it comes to its ad-buying platform. It has also surfaced that the Alphabet-owned giant, following in Apple’s footstep, is currently discussing the possibility to follow anti-tracking route, albeit partially, for Android. Earlier this year, in a bid to curb invasive tracking, Google announced that they will phase out third-party cookies and won’t be replacing them with some other technology even though it has the potential of hurting its advertising business. This recent ruling comes when big tech is facing intense security from lawmakers and regulators over their unchecked data collecting practices. On Saturday, Google spokesperson José Castañeda, in an email response to a query regarding the lawsuit, mentioned that the company vehemently disagrees with the lawsuit’s claims and will surely defend itself in the upcoming legal proceedings.įurthermore, he also explained that the primary purpose of Google Chrome’s incognito mode is to allow users to browse the internet without having their activity saved on the browser or the device they are using. Therefore, a user’s activity during a private browsing session may be visible to the websites they visit along with third-party analytics or ad services that are enabled on the same. ![]() Google, in response to the ruling, via a court filing, said that the ‘incognito’ mode is not equivalent to ‘invisible’ mode. In her ruling, she mentioned that the company has failed to notify users about their alleged data collection practices while users have their private mode on. However, U.S District Judge Lucy Koh had planned otherwise. At first, Google quite obviously sought to have the lawsuit rejected.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |