A Class Action Settlement Against Incognito-Based Web Browser Detection: Comments on “A New Privacy Feature for the Internet,” said Castaeda

According to the proposed class action settlement, the internet search company agreed to destroy or alter billions of records of web browsing data collected when users were incognito mode.

The company ispleased to settle the lawsuit, which we always believed was meritless, said José Castaeda. The proposed settlement was worth $5 billion, though Castaeda claimed that they were not getting anything. The class does not have damages associated with the settlement.

“This Settlement ensures real accountability and transparency from the world’s largest data collector and marks an important step toward improving and upholding our right to privacy on the Internet,” the plaintiffs wrote in the proposed settlement filing.

“We never associate data with users when they use Incognito mode,” Castañeda added. “We are happy to delete old technical data that was never associated with an individual and was never used for any form of personalization.”

The steps that have to be taken include blocking third-party cookies within Incognito mode for a period of five years, redaction of IP addresses to prevent re-identification of user data, and removing certain data that can currently be used to identify users.

Critics of Incognito say the feature fills people with a false sense of security and that it doesn’t do enough to protect against commercial snoopers.