Comment on Google updates Chrome's Incognito Mode disclaimer to admit it is tracking users
WaxedWookie@lemmy.world 9 months agoTo be clear, I was aware of the risk thanks to previous reports and my work in the cybersecurity space. I’m talking about the average user.
The name is deceptive, and explicitly calling out a list of parties that may see your traffic without naming themselves is deceptive.
It’s akin to a guard saying beware doors 1 and 3 - there are dragons behind them. If you hear this from an authority that would know, you’d probably assume there’s not a dragon behind door 2, or they would have said so.
The perception of “the man on the street” is a common legal standard that I’d argue Google has fallen short of here.
Rediphile@lemmy.ca 9 months ago
Aww man I thought I found one! Guess I’m back down to zero people.
WaxedWookie@lemmy.world 9 months ago
No thoughts on the perception they seem to be crafting very deliberately?
Rediphile@lemmy.ca 9 months ago
I always saw Google as a website too. So if I type ‘giant donkey dicks’ into the url/search bar, then Google is obviously going to know my preference for large donkey dicks. Since I googled it.
Or are these hypothetical common folk typing in full urls themselves or something? If it’s auto-filling in any way, that’s thanks to Google and they can only provide it if aware what has been typed so far.
WaxedWookie@lemmy.world 9 months ago
That lack of delineation is also an issue, but a separate one. That said, I’d think an average user would think doing a Google search from an incog tab would be anonymised and not tied to them because of the privacy incog grants (or more accurately, doesn’t). There’s reasonable arguments to be made on either side of this point, but I think that Google have been intentionally misleading - which is now creating problems for them, motivating this change.
Again, all the information Google present when opening an incog tab would lead someone to the conclusion that Google won’t track them. Unless I’m mistaken, when this came up years back, Google explicitly denied tracking people in incognito mode, and they’re only changing their disclaimers now in response to a multi-billion dollar lawsuit.