Google May Be Fined $5 Billion for Tracking Users in Incognito Mode

On Tuesday, a class-action lawsuit against Google was filed in the court of San Jose, California. The tech giant is being accused of illegally invading the privacy of millions of users.

Plaintiffs demand at least $5 billion, claiming that the corporation collects data through Google Analytics, Google Ad Manager, and other applications and plugins even in Incognito mode. According to the plaintiffs, in this way, Google can learn a lot about hobbies, friends, habits, favorite products, and even users' most intimate and potentially embarrassing things.

However, Jose Castaneda, a Google spokesman, said the corporation would defend itself against such allegations.

"As we clearly state each time you open a new incognito tab, websites might be able to collect information about your browsing activity," he said.

The complaint claims that since June 1, 2016, millions of users who have used "private" mode in the browser have suffered from Google's actions. It is not clear why the plaintiffs chose this date. Incognito mode appeared almost in the very first release of the Google Chrome browser.