One of the biggest scandals Google On a privacy level, yes Data collection through Chrome’s incognito mode. After the matter went to court through a 2020 class-action lawsuit in California seeking $5 billion in damages, the company decided to enter into a termination agreement last year to minimize damages.

The $5,000 million compensation was not an amount mentioned casually to gain media attention, but rather resulted from a calculation that determined the value of the data the company collected through Chrome’s incognito mode until December 2023, the date the deal was announced. At the time, plaintiffs alleged that Google used Analytics, apps and browser add-ons to track users without their permission.

One of the parts of the deal that was recently revealed is that Google is committed to destroying data collected through Chrome’s incognito mode and must anonymize it in cases where it cannot be destroyed. This destruction of data, as explained by the search giant’s spokesperson José Casteñeda, means that the plaintiffs “get nothing”, so damages are basically not included. However, this does not mean that claims cannot be made on an individual level.

What’s more, despite reaching an agreement, Google doesn’t seem to fully retract or regret what it did, or at least the following words from Casteñeda reveal: “When using anonymous mode, we never associate data with users. “We are happy to remove old technical data that has never been associated with an individual and has never been used for any type of personalization.”

As for the plaintiff, and from what he’s showing the public, he seems happy with the settlement and with Google deleting the collected data: “This agreement guarantees real accountability and transparency on the part of the world’s largest data collector and is an important step to improve and protecting our right to privacy on the Internet.”

In addition to destroying or at least anonymizing the data, The agreement also deals with how Google discloses the limits of its private browsing servicessomething that started rolling out in Chrome a long time ago, and a commitment from the company for five years when users can block by default cookies from third parties in Chrome’s incognito mode to prevent user tracking.

As we have said several times, the private browsing or incognito mode offered by web browsers is not the same as anonymizing the traffic generated. The only thing private browsing does on paper is block persistent storage cookies and other data that is generated or collected during browsing, but the IP and user agent remain unchanged compared to standard browsing. If you really want to anonymize your traffic, you’ll need to use Tor or a VPN.