Google may have been secretly tracking your incognito mode web activities

[brainhulk]

Do You Use Google Chrome’s Incognito Mode? You May Be Eligible for $5K

That's a fair amount of money.

news.yahoo.com

Google tracks and collects consumer browsing history and other web activity data no matter what safeguards consumers undertake to protect their data privacy

 

[zinfamous]

Do I have to admit to all of the scandalous porn browsing I've been doing to register as a complainant?

 

[lxskllr]

:^| <<< My shocked face. People will sign up for a settlement, google will get more data on them, and the big payout will be a year of credit monitoring and 40¢

That's what happens when you sleep with snakes.

 

[WelshBloke]

I was under the impression that incognito mode just didn't leave any browsing "residue" on your PC not that you weren't tracked whilst using it.

 

[Fanatical Meat]

Honestly I find MS Edge much better for pr0n

 

[WelshBloke]

Honestly I find MS Edge much better for pr0n

I'd be surprised if MS wasn't tracking you at least as much as Google is though!

 

[zinfamous]

I was under the impression that incognito mode just didn't leave any browsing "residue" on your PC not that you weren't tracked whilst using it.

yes, pretty much. I'm sure it's in the Eula somewhere

 

[Fanatical Meat]

I'd be surprised if MS wasn't tracking you at least as much as Google is though!

Well yeah but I suspect Microsoft isn’t as good. Microsoft is a software business with a tiny ad share
Google is an Ad company with some hardware and a tiny amount of software (revenue)

 

[BoomerD]

I hope I bored the watchers to death...

 

[WelshBloke]

Well yeah but I suspect Microsoft isn’t as good. Microsoft is a software business with a tiny ad share
Google is an Ad company with some hardware and a tiny amount of software (revenue)

Microsoft also control the operating system and track everything through there as well so I'd say that they are pretty good at it.
Your contact with MS is much bigger than with Google (if you're using a windows computer).

It doesn't really matter how successful they are at making money out of your data surely? Its how much of it they have that matters.

 

[Fanatical Meat]

Microsoft also control the operating system and track everything through there as well so I'd say that they are pretty good at it.
Your contact with MS is much bigger than with Google (if you're using a windows computer).

It doesn't really matter how successful they are at making money out of your data surely? Its how much of it they have that matters.

Meh, regardless I trust MS with my data far more than google.
Also edge is superior for pr0n

 

[WelshBloke]

Meh, regardless I trust MS with my data far more than google.

I dunno. Its in Googles interest to keep that data to themselves, its their horde of gold, the source of their wealth. I dont trust Microsoft not to outsource a bunch of that data out to other companies to try to fix all the data hungry stuff they have thats a bit crap (cortana, bing, maps).

I'm pretty certain that if you are using a windows PC then Microsoft are scarfing more data on you than Google, and they aren't doing it for shit and giggles.

 

[lxskllr]

Nothing like a good pissing match over who fucks you less while still fucking you :^D

 

[WelshBloke]

Nothing like a good pissing match over who fucks you less while still fucking you :^D

I agree with your sentiment there, I just value some of the services enought to pay for it with the data I provide. I think that you do need to be aware of what you are paying though. Which is why I'm always surprised when people switch from Chrome to Edge because "teh googles cant track me then!!" as if Microsoft isnt tracking you out the wazzoo! They dont go to a massive effort to put out a web browser for no reason!

If you dont want to be tracked use linux and an open source browser. And a VPN. and dont use any useful web services. Or a mobile phone. Or a credit card. Or store card.

 

[lxskllr]

Yea, some of it's hard to get away from unless you go full Stallman, but I try to keep as low a profile as possible while having some conveniences.

 

[WelshBloke]

Yea, some of it's hard to get away from unless you go full Stallman, but I try to keep as low a profile as possible while having some conveniences.

I think that as long as you are making informed choices its good. It crazes me when people think that if they don't use Chrome then no one is tracking them or skimming their information!

 

[BudAshes]

I find Brave is the best all around browser these days. Use it on my phone, home pc and at work.

 

[WelshBloke]

I find Brave is the best all around browser these days. Use it on my phone, home pc and at work.

Firefox preview is pretty nice on the phone because the search/address bar is at the bottom.

 

[lxskllr]

Firefox preview is pretty nice on the phone because the search/address bar is at the bottom.

I've been getting a little irritated with it. I like desktop view pretty much everywhere, but if it pages out while I do something else on the phone, it comes back as mobile view, and the switch is stuck. I have to close, then reopen it. No about:config sucks too, but the performance is nice. I should probably submit a bug report. I'm typing this on old firefox mobile. It's slow, but has the features I like.

 

[WelshBloke]

I've been getting a little irritated with it. I like desktop view pretty much everywhere, but if it pages out while I do something else on the phone, it comes back as mobile view, and the switch is stuck. I have to close, then reopen it. No about:config sucks too, but the performance is nice. I should probably submit a bug report. I'm typing this on old firefox mobile. It's slow, but has the features I like.

I dont use desktop view on my phone, my eyes arent up to it any more!
What does bother me about all the (mobile) Mozilla browsers is that they break text boxes on forums. I get random line breaks and capitalizations and I have to switch to a different browser if I want to post a picture.

 

[ultimatebob]

Meh, regardless I trust MS with my data far more than google.
Also edge is superior for pr0n

I still use Firefox with an ad blocker. That should cut down on a fair amount of the activity tracking being done on me, although I'd imagine that my ISP is still keeping an eye on where I go. They're getting better at targeting TV ads at me.

 

[TheVrolok]

I was under the impression that incognito mode just didn't leave any browsing "residue" on your PC not that you weren't tracked whilst using it.

This.

 

[sandorski]

When a Companies whole business depends on knowing what people do on the Internet...

 

[UncleWai]

No wonder these midget porn ads keep popping up in my browser

 

[Ken g6]

I think the basis of the suit is that, even if you're browsing as Incognito, you still load assets from Google. Then Google has supercookies that track you by IP, which is one thing Incognito doesn't block. So, to Google, it's the same as if you were browsing without Incognito.