The private nature of incognito surfing isn’t as private as we thought. Misleading texts reveal a completely different story.

The incognito window has been around for a long time and is turned on by Chrome users when they don’t want Google tracking their browsing habits. While most users thought for a long time that they were surfing completely privately, a different story came to light a few years ago. The misleading nature of the explanation text in the incognito window was the starting point of a lawsuit that would cost Google about $5 billion if settled. The company will make some adjustments to make the private nature of the Incognito window more apparent, although this will not improve the level of privacy.

How does it work?

The purpose of an incognito browser is to allow users to browse the Internet privately without storing any data. A well-known incognito mode is Chrome, which can be used on mobile devices or desktop browsers. Opening the incognito window is very easy. Go to chrome and click at the top right Institutions. Then choose New incognito window and a new window opens. Here you can read:

From now on you can surf incognito in this window. Per the Google disclaimer above, data such as your browsing history, cookies and website data, and information you enter into forms is not stored in Chrome. While it is plausible that users say they can no longer be tracked for advertising purposes, this is not entirely true.

Misleading or not?

A tech-savvy cybersecurity expert would quickly question the private nature of such incognito modes. For the average Chrome user with less knowledge, this feature seems reliable. Unfortunately it is false. The user thinks they are surfing completely privately, but in reality all data is still available to Google.

The disclaimer states that Chrome does not store the above data, but other websites you visit do. Google counts itself in the “Other Websites” category. So when you browse Google Search in the incognito window, this data is not stored in your Google account, but in your individual Google advertising profile. Even if you don’t use Google Search, Google may collect your data on websites that use Google Ads.

It is up for debate whether Google is passing on misleading information here or not. In fact, if a cyber engineer were to analyze this text, they would conclude that Google can still retrieve your data. The average Chrome user, after reading “The following data is not stored by Chrome,” realizes that their data is not being collected. The latter finding was enough for a California judge to initiate a lawsuit against Google.

Google damages trust

Back in 2020, Google was accused of tracking Chrome users’ activities in the incognito browser. Google initially tried unsuccessfully to dismiss this lawsuit. After several years, an agreement has now been reached that will cost Google no less than five billion dollars.

The main reason for the lawsuit was that Google “intentionally misleads consumers” in its explanatory text. Although Google doesn’t necessarily lie in its explanation text, most users are not clear about what it actually means.

“More” private surfing

Following the lawsuit, Google plans to make some changes to clarify the text of the declaration. According to MSPowerUser, a custom incognito window appears in the latest Canary version of the browser. A small nuance is added: the text no longer says that you are surfing “privately”, but rather “more privately”. This means that the load is covered better than before.

Additionally, users are warned that incognito browsing does not affect the way websites and Google collect their data. Although you can browse outside of Google Search, this is no guarantee that Google will no longer be able to retrieve your data. External websites can do this, and if they use Google Ads, Google still has your data.

How private is incognito surfing really?

The moral of the story? The incognito window in Google Chrome only hides your browsing data on your device and in your Google Account, nothing more. Google can still see your browsing data in Google Search and Google Ads. As stated in the explanation text, other websites, agencies and Internet providers may also collect your data in private mode. Therefore, you should definitely treat the private nature of the incognito browser with caution. Everything you do and look up online can be tracked by something or someone at any time.