In an effort to be more transparent with users, Google is clarifying the language in Chrome's incognito mode disclaimer by saying, in no uncertain terms, that the company does indeed collect your data.
Added an additional line that says “This will not change the way the websites you visit and the services they use, including Google, collect data.” The updated wording was initially discovered by technology news site MSPowerUser in the latest Chrome Canary update for desktop and mobile. We install the browser on our devices to check and we can confirm that the line is there.
The points below the disclaimer are pretty much the same. One of the headers has some additional words that now say “Chrome won't save the following information” followed by the list instead of just “Chrome won't save.”
Although not confirmed, the language update is likely the result of a recent court settlement. In 2020, Google was hit by a $5 billion class-action lawsuit accusing the tech giant of collecting user data from “web browsers running in private mode.” The company argued that every time someone opened an incognito tab, Chrome clearly informed people that it or other websites could collect information about users.
However, the judge handling the case I didn't believe the argument stating that “Google never explicitly told users that it does this.” The two parties involved finally reached a settlement on December 28, 2023 for an undisclosed amount.
Update pending
It is unknown when the editorial will move from Canary to the stable version of the browser.
If you're not familiar with it, Canary is an experimental version of Chrome intended primarily for developers looking to test upcoming features before they are released. It is not intended for the average person, as it is unstable and capable of crashing at random times.
Canary features can take a long time to launch, but since they're just a few lines of text, we could see the Incognito Mode update fairly soon. According to an Ars Technica report from late December, the deal will need to be “submitted to the court by the end of January.” That court will have to approve the agreement at the end of February.
Therefore, we could see the new wording in March at the earliest. We've reached out to Google for more details. This story will be updated later.
Please note that this does not change the behavior of the company. It will continue to collect data about you. The only difference now is that Google tells people it is collecting data. To maintain your privacy online, be sure to check out TechRadar's huge list of the best privacy tools for 2024.
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