WASHINGTON, May 19 (Reuters) – Google’s search engine collects data on users who believe they can be anonymous if they use private browsing, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton said on Thursday, filing an amended privacy lawsuit against Alphabet Inc. (GOOGL.O) unit.
Texas, Indiana, Washington and the District of Columbia filed separate lawsuits against Google in January in state courts over what they called fraudulent location tracking practices that invade users’ privacy.
Paxton’s statement added the Google Incognito regime to the January lawsuit. Incognito or private browsing mode is a feature of the web browser that, according to Paxton, suggests that Google will not track search history or location activity.
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The lawsuit says Google offers the option of “private browsing”, which may include browsing highly personal websites that may show, for example, their medical history, political beliefs or sexual orientation. Or maybe you just want to buy a surprise gift without the recipient of the gift being alerted by a series of targeted advertisements. “
The lawsuit states that “in fact, Google fraudulently collects an array of personal data, even when the user has enabled incognito mode.”
Google said Thursday that Paxton’s documentation is again “based on inaccurate and outdated claims about our settings.” We’ve always built privacy features into our products and provide robust controls for location data. “
“We strongly dispute these allegations and will vigorously defend ourselves to clear the record,” he added.
Earlier, Paxton claimed that Google was misleading users by continuing to track their location, even when users tried to prevent it.
Google has a Location History setting and informs users if they turn it off, “The places you visit are no longer saved,” Texas said.
In January, an Arizona judge ruled that allegations that Google had deceived users with unclear smartphone tracking settings should be weighed by a jury, refusing to dismiss a lawsuit filed by the state’s attorney general.
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Report by David Shepardson; Edited by David Gregorio and Himani Sarkar
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