Google's 'Incognito' Mode Inspires Staff Jokes - and a Big Lawsuit

An email mocking Chrome browsing mode's faux privacy has surfaced in the courtroom. From a report: On International Data Privacy Day last year, an email popped into Alphabet Chief Executive Sundar Pichai's inbox from Google's marketing chief Lorraine Twohill full of ideas on gaining user trust. 'Make Incognito Mode truly private,' she wrote in a bullet point. 'We are limited in how strongly we can market Incognito because it's not truly private, thus requiring really fuzzy, hedging language that is almost more damaging.' Now, billions of dollars in damages could be at stake in a consumer lawsuit targeting the private-browsing feature if a judge agrees Tuesday to let the case proceed as a class action on behalf of millions of users.

Twohill's assessment of Incognito's shortcomings was remarkably candid considering Google had already been sued at the time she messaged her boss, who himself had shepherded the feature through development back when the company launched its Chrome browser in 2008. Google denies wrongdoing. 'Privacy controls have long been built into our services and we encourage our teams to constantly discuss or consider ideas to improve them,' spokesman Jose Castaneda said in an email. Court filings show that well before the search engine giant was taken to court, rank and file Googlers frankly voiced their own frustrations that Incognito didn't live up to its name.

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