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For years, there have been rumors that incognito mode in browsers, even in the secure Chrome, does not work as intended. Allegedly, some information about the user is still collected and leaked in this mode. It is available to both site owners and browser developers. Numerous testimonies have pointed to this.
Vulnerabilities related to information leakage in "incognito" mode have been constantly found in the Chrome browser .
A separate problem is detection: the site easily determines that the visitor is in incognito mode, and detection occurs in different ways:
You can check it on this page.
The surveillance of users in incognito mode was not limited to browsers. For example, the developers of one antivirus assigned each user in incognito mode a unique ID. The vulnerability affected all major browsers, including Chrome, Firefox, Edge, and Opera, and was eventually assigned the number CVE-2019-8286, and the vendor was asked to fix it.
Even a bug in Nvidia drivers displayed the contents of incognito mode on the screen:
In 2020, a class action lawsuit was filed against Google for violating the privacy of millions of Chrome users.
To settle the dispute, Google agreed in the spring of 2024 to delete billions of records collected while users were browsing in incognito mode, according to documents filed in federal court in San Francisco.
The agreement is part of a class action lawsuit filed in 2020. It ends years of exposing Chrome and other browsers that offer a so-called “anonymous” mode for browsing the web. In reality, even in this mode, the browser extracts a large amount of data from users.
Under the terms of the settlement, Google must update the Incognito mode splash screen that appears when you open a Chrome window in this mode. The splash screen will clearly state that Google collects data from third-party sites “regardless of which browsing mode or browser you use,” and also indicate that “third-party sites and apps that integrate our services may share information with Google,” and make other changes.
Details about Google’s data collection in private mode must also appear in the company’s privacy policy. Under the terms of the agreement, some data that Google previously collected about users in Incognito mode will be deleted. This includes data collected “before nine months” from the time Google signed the agreement last December, as well as private mode data collected before December 2023. However, some documents in the case regarding Google’s data collection practices remain sealed, making it difficult to assess how thorough the removal process will be.
In January 2024, Google updated Chrome’s Incognito screensaver with weaker language and emphasized that using the mode was not “private,” but simply “more private” than not using it.
The settlement is strictly “injunctive,” meaning its primary goal is to stop Google from engaging in behavior that the plaintiffs say is illegal. It does not, however, preclude future lawsuits. Wall Street Journal reports that at least 50 similar lawsuits have been filed against the plaintiffs' lawyers in California.
Incognito mode has been an integral part of the Chrome browser since 2008, and has since been included in other browsers. But it's largely a myth. The protection it provides doesn't work in the face of sophisticated commercial surveillance that most users are subject to today. And the saddest thing is that the feature lulls people into a false sense of security. It helps companies passively spy on millions of users who are tricked into thinking they're "private" and can be more open.
Source
Vulnerabilities related to information leakage in "incognito" mode have been constantly found in the Chrome browser .
A separate problem is detection: the site easily determines that the visitor is in incognito mode, and detection occurs in different ways:
You can check it on this page.
The surveillance of users in incognito mode was not limited to browsers. For example, the developers of one antivirus assigned each user in incognito mode a unique ID. The vulnerability affected all major browsers, including Chrome, Firefox, Edge, and Opera, and was eventually assigned the number CVE-2019-8286, and the vendor was asked to fix it.
Even a bug in Nvidia drivers displayed the contents of incognito mode on the screen:
In 2020, a class action lawsuit was filed against Google for violating the privacy of millions of Chrome users.
To settle the dispute, Google agreed in the spring of 2024 to delete billions of records collected while users were browsing in incognito mode, according to documents filed in federal court in San Francisco.
The agreement is part of a class action lawsuit filed in 2020. It ends years of exposing Chrome and other browsers that offer a so-called “anonymous” mode for browsing the web. In reality, even in this mode, the browser extracts a large amount of data from users.
Under the terms of the settlement, Google must update the Incognito mode splash screen that appears when you open a Chrome window in this mode. The splash screen will clearly state that Google collects data from third-party sites “regardless of which browsing mode or browser you use,” and also indicate that “third-party sites and apps that integrate our services may share information with Google,” and make other changes.
Details about Google’s data collection in private mode must also appear in the company’s privacy policy. Under the terms of the agreement, some data that Google previously collected about users in Incognito mode will be deleted. This includes data collected “before nine months” from the time Google signed the agreement last December, as well as private mode data collected before December 2023. However, some documents in the case regarding Google’s data collection practices remain sealed, making it difficult to assess how thorough the removal process will be.
In January 2024, Google updated Chrome’s Incognito screensaver with weaker language and emphasized that using the mode was not “private,” but simply “more private” than not using it.
The settlement is strictly “injunctive,” meaning its primary goal is to stop Google from engaging in behavior that the plaintiffs say is illegal. It does not, however, preclude future lawsuits. Wall Street Journal reports that at least 50 similar lawsuits have been filed against the plaintiffs' lawyers in California.
Incognito mode has been an integral part of the Chrome browser since 2008, and has since been included in other browsers. But it's largely a myth. The protection it provides doesn't work in the face of sophisticated commercial surveillance that most users are subject to today. And the saddest thing is that the feature lulls people into a false sense of security. It helps companies passively spy on millions of users who are tricked into thinking they're "private" and can be more open.
Source
