Google was already in the middle of a class-action lawsuit regarding the incognito mode, where they were accused of tracking user activity. And, they agreed to settle the lawsuit.
To conclude that and move on, they will have to make the necessary changes to prevent another lawsuit against them.
No shit.
It’s never been a secret what incognito mode does. Websites have always still been able to do whatever they want with your traffic, because the browser doesn’t control that in any way.
Yeah. But you don’t get upvotes so easily by not shouting “Google bad!”.
While this might be obvious to you or I, it’s obviously not obvious to some people who think it gives them some semblance of privacy.
The only “private mode” of browsing is anything that’s not Chrome or Edge.
The only “private mode” of browsing is anything that’s not Chrome or Edge.
Firefox’s private mode says:
https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/common-myths-about-private-browsing
it’s obviously not obvious to some people who think it gives them some semblance of privacy.people who think it gives them some semblance of privacy.
As I said in a different comment, it should have been obvious to anyone with with basic reading skills. Google may be a shitty company (it surely is), but the PEBCAK factor is strong factor in this case.
The only “private mode” of browsing is anything that’s not Chrome or Edge.
Disagree. Independently on the browser you use, website may track you server side and you wouldn’t ever know.
How much obvious does it need to be?
They lost a $5B lawsuit because the things on that page weren’t true.
Honestly, this article is pretty bad at explaining the problem here. It’s clear that other websites will try to track you, but the important part of this incognito drama is this:
The plaintiffs also accused Google of taking Chrome users’ private browsing activity and then associating it with their already-existing user profiles.
TL;DR: Chrome doesn’t stop trackers, so they’re gonna add a warning that incognito doesn’t stop trackers.
Of course, a better course of action could have been “actually” improving the incognito mode instead of just updating the notice.
An even better course of action is for people to switch to a browser that care about users’ privacy and block trackers by default.
Google makes billions from targeted advertising every year, don’t expect it to improve privacy unless it’s forced to by regulation or competition.