Oct 17, 2022 15:00:00

Chrome's secret browsing was not trusted even within Google as ``not a secret at all''

In Chrome, Google's web browser, right-clicking and selecting 'Open in secret window' enables '

secret browsing ' that does not save browsing history. I think that there are many users who use this incognito browsing, but there was a discussion within Google that ``incognito browsing is not secret at all'' and ``incognito browsing is not completely private and should be fixed.'' This is clear from court documents.

Google's 'Incognito' Mode Inspires Staff Jokes — and a Big Lawsuit (GOOGL) - Bloomberg
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-10-11/google-s-incognito-inspires-staff-jokes-and-a-big-lawsuit

Google Engineers Joked About How Incognito Mode Isn't Very Incognito
https://futurism.com/the-byte/google-engineers-joked-incognito-mode

Google has been accused of collecting user information with Chrome's 'Secret Browsing' so far, and in 2020 faced a class action lawsuit seeking damages of about 540 billion yen.

A class action lawsuit seeking damages of about 540 billion yen against Google, ``Google collects personal information also from browsing in privacy mode,'' the plaintiff claims-GIGAZINE

After that, in May 2022, Ken Ken, Attorney General of Texas, said, ``Despite advertising that it is in a mode that does not track browsing history or location information, it is still collecting personal information.'' A lawsuit was filed by Mr. Paxton et al.

The lawsuit alleges that the privacy-focused browsing feature that Google advertises as 'incognito browsing' or 'incognito mode' actually collects a lot of user information and misleads users.

Among the documents submitted as materials related to this lawsuit, ``an email sent by Lorraine Twohill, chief of Google's marketing department, to CEO Sundar Pichai'' has been found. In the email, Twohill said, 'We're going to make incognito browsing completely private.' We need an ambiguous and insurance-effective expression that can be given, ”said CEO Pichai.

In addition, Google shared a survey internally that showed that users misunderstood incognito browsing, and in a group chat held internally in 2018, ``Stop calling it incognito mode, It is also clear that a recommendation was made that it is necessary to stop using the spy icon.

Another engineer said, ``The secret browsing icon should have been Guy Incognito (a character that appears in The Simpsons) .... This will accurately convey the privacy level of secret browsing.'' has also become clear.

``This is a pretty terrible insight into how Google employees viewed Chrome's incognito browsing,'' said The Byte of overseas media.

In addition, Google said in the lawsuit, ``We clearly show users that secret browsing is not completely private, and users agree to Google tracking their data.'' .