Google agrees to delete browsing data collected in incognito mode

The search engine giant, in a Monday court filing, agreed to delete data it gathered on users utilizing its Google Chrome incognito mode. The filing, a proposed settlement, would require Google to delete any data it had collected before the start of this year and notify users that it will be collecting data on their incognito searches going forward.

How did this settlement come about? In 2020, Google users filed a class-action lawsuit against the organization, saying that it had been collecting their data even when they were using the browser’s “private” incognito mode setting.

What does Google have to say? “We are pleased to settle this lawsuit, which we always believed was meritless,” Google spokesman José Castañeda said in a statement provided to WORLD. Castañeda added that the company never associated the data it collected during those incognito searches with any individual users. “We are happy to delete old technical data that was never associated with an individual and was never used for any form of personalization.”

Isn’t Google facing another major lawsuit? The Justice Department last January filed a lawsuit against Google alleging that it had engaged in unfair business practices to create and maintain an internet advertising monopoly. Nine additional states joined the lawsuit in April, according to a statement by the Justice Department. Google has said that the lawsuit mischaracterizes its advertising practices.

Dig deeper: Read Ericka Andersen’s column in WORLD Opinions about evidence that Google’s AI chatbot, Gemini, leans left.