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Invasion of Privacy? Google settles $5 Billion Consumer Privacy Lawsuit
As far as online activity: assume that you are tracked and monitored no matter what the promises are as to privacy.
See also: Recommended Security Settings for Safari
You have no privacy online and maybe not even in your own home, and never again will barring an EMP event, so act accordingly.
Settlement does not necessarily meant guilt, but for such a technical assertion, disproving it should be easy enough vs the allegation: “Google's analytics, cookies and apps let the Alphabet unit track their activity even when they set Google's Chrome browser to "Incognito" mode”.
How much Google actually paid is unclear—presumably far less than the clickbait headline but at least enough to make some lawyers rich.
Brought to you by Google, the “don’t be evil” huge evil company...
Google settles $5 billion consumer privacy lawsuit
2023-12-29
Dec 28 (Reuters) - Alphabet's Google (GOOGL.O) has agreed to settle a lawsuit claiming it secretly tracked the internet use of millions of people who thought they were doing their browsing privately.
The lawsuit had sought at least $5 billion. Settlement terms were not disclosed, but the lawyers said they have agreed to a binding term sheet through mediation, and expected to present a formal settlement for court approval by Feb. 24, 2024.
...The plaintiffs alleged that Google's analytics, cookies and apps let the Alphabet unit track their activity even when they set Google's Chrome browser to "Incognito" mode and other browsers to "private" browsing mode.
They said his turned Google into an "unaccountable trove of information" by letting the company learn about their friends, hobbies, favorite foods, shopping habits, and "potentially embarrassing things" they seek out online.
In August, Rogers rejected Google's bid to dismiss the lawsuit.
She said it was an open question whether Google had made a legally binding promise not to collect users' data when they browsed in private mode. The judge cited Google's privacy policy and other statements by the company that suggested limits on what information it might collect.
...
MPG: the whole thing is absurd: leading users to believe they had privacy while relying on legalese fine print in invisible ink in order to violate it constitutes fraud for any reasonable person, plain and simple. And the “reasonable person” standard is about as good as it gets for legal cases right up to homicide.
Assume that you are tracked and monitored no matter what the promises are as to privacy. Doesn’t matter if it is Apple, Google, Facebook, or “secure”/private whatever.
