Texas AG: Google Mode Not So Incognito

Google’s incognito mode misleads users into thinking their web search and activity history isn’t recorded, said Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton (R) in an amended complaint Thursday at Texas District Court in Victory County (case 22-01-88230-D). Paxton added that claim to his original suit claiming Google violates the Texas Deceptive Trade Practices Act by tracking users’ locations even if they disabled location tracking (see 2201240028). “Google claims to give users control and to respect their choice but in reality, regardless of the settings users select, the Big Tech giant is still hard at work collecting and monetizing the location and other personal information that users seek to keep private,” said Paxton. The Texas AG's case is "based on inaccurate claims and outdated assertions about our settings," said a Google spokesperson. "We have always built privacy features into our products and provided robust controls for location data. We strongly dispute these claims and will vigorously defend ourselves to set the record straight.”