$5 Billion Google Lawsuit Over 'Incognito Mode' Tracking Moves Closer to Trial

[Shirasaki]

it’s one thing to see those kind of lawsuits going through and give company incentives to think twice before doing those kind of behaviors. It’s another when beneficial (to users) class action lawsuit being settled like this over and over and legal team in those megacorps think they are fine anyway. I heard class action lawsuit is like one way street, do it once, and you cannot do it again under the same issue.

I am more interested in the long term impact on how tech companies design their EULA after similar lawsuits. And no, unlike most folks, I DO read EULA/Terms sometimes in full, despite not having any legal background. E.g., before handing over my device to Apple for hardware service.

Blaming someone else not reading EULA in a way is like flexing how much free time you have. Good for you I guess.

 

[Shirasaki]

Moral of the story: Don’t trust/use Google.

Moral of the story: trust no companies, including Apple. Why users need to trust companies when companies dont trust us anyways?

 

[Shirasaki]

you sound like Trey and Matt when they wrote Human CentiPad, minus any hint of satire. 😂

having user agreements filled to the brim with legalese—with companies knowing damn well that virtually everyone is going to simply scroll past them and hit agree—is one of the most pervasive issues of the modern Internet age. I get that some kind of user agreement is required for any kind of service provided online, but frankly, Apple is showing the way of the future with things like their nutrition-label-esque (wow, forgot "nutrition" was actually in the name for them) Privacy Nutrition Labels.

e.g. one (of many) reason(s) I will never download TikTok.

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The danger of dumbing down like this is they can still say one thing and do another. Companies of Apple/Google/TikTok size relies on users never bother to find out what’s truly behind the book of EULA. Google is found out this time, but for other companies it’s more of a matter of if than when.
On top of that, companies affiliated with certain states who don’t respect privacy at all cares even less.

Yeah dude, and it's the homeowner's fault they got broken into because they didn't lock their door... and it's the shooting victim's fault for not wearing a bullet proof vest...

It's wild to me the contortions people will twist themselves into to blame the victim instead of the criminal, especially when it's a faceless, multinational megacorporation.

I detest anyone mindlessly defending companies behavior, whether said behavior is good or bad. They have an army of lawyers to bring you down several times over if they don’t like you, whether you defend or not.
And, no one wants to take responsibilities, because that comes with liability and financial losses, or jail time depending on the damage. It’s so much easier and cheaper (usually) for companies to shift responsibilities away from them until they are unable to do so.

It’s very easy actually. Every browser you can set the default search engine. It’s right in the settings.

Even better just stop using Chrome and Google services. It’s not a secret they track every thing a user does, plenty of alternatives.

It’s one thing to say “yes, here’s the alternative“. It’s the other when one can say “here are some of the good alternatives“. So far, no other search engine is as good as Google when you are serious about what you want to find.

 

[svish]

Wonder how this lawsuit will end.

 

[Philip_S]

They get 27% on average. Small payouts are typically due to class size.

That could be fixed by adopting two rules: that any damages or settlement have to be per-member, with costs a separate line item, so that the payout to the class members is sufficient to make them whole regardless of any errors estimating the class size, and class members can opt out up to accepting the payment so they can argue for a different level or form of compensation.

 

[VulchR]

You're going to outlaw the ability for companies to guess? As in, guess about anything?

No. Guessing does not entail sifting through huge volumes of data. Any inference Google and other companies make about you are based on reams of data, some of which they have collected honestly, and some of which they have collected and shared without your explicit consent. They make money by sharing data about you, not 'guesses'.

 

[larrylaffer]

That could be fixed by adopting two rules: that any damages or settlement have to be per-member, with costs a separate line item, so that the payout to the class members is sufficient to make them whole regardless of any errors estimating the class size, and class members can opt out up to accepting the payment so they can argue for a different level or form of compensation.

Your first suggestion is achieved by forming the case as a mass tort rather than a class action, but then the court needs to weigh every single claimant individually. That’s hard to do if the class contains hundreds of thousands of people.

The second one I’m pretty sure you can already do. IIRC most class action claim forms allow you to opt out if you want to pursue your own case.

I was recently a member of a mass tort for an environmental incident that occurred ~6 years ago. The settlements amount were determined per plaintiff (there were roughly 45k plaintiffs) by calculating distance between my home and incident, and then any other extenuating circumstances, such as medical bills, time off work, etc. I ended up getting a sizable amount of money, but it took years for the case to progress, because as I mentioned above, the court needed to review every single plaintiffs case.

 

[Scotticus]

Nah, what is wild is the fact that people do not accept any responsibility anymore and always want to blame it on someone else. (Your analogies are terrible btw) I am not saying Google is in the right here but using the "I didn't read it" as the excuse is laughable at best (especially when it literally has a splash screen right in front of their face. But go off and keep giving idiots a pass to be lazy and not read what is right in front of them to know what actually is happening.

Quit trying to play the victim card (you're not a victim) because you were too lazy to read a little bit to know what was happening.

Bro, you must live a simultaneously incredibly charmed and incredibly boring life to have the time to read every single EULA you click "Accept" on. People out here working two jobs just to pay their bills and you're calling them lazy for not sitting down to read a novel every time they use a service or feature

 

[Shirasaki]

Bro, you must live a simultaneously incredibly charmed and incredibly boring life to have the time to read every single EULA you click "Accept" on. People out here working two jobs just to pay their bills and you're calling them lazy for not sitting down to read a novel every time they use a service or feature

Hence why I call those accusing “not reading Eula“ flexing their free time.

 

[_Spinn_]

This is a dumb lawsuit. I can't believe it isn't thrown out.

Do people not know how incognito works and how trackers installed on individual websites work?

No, Chrome in incognito mode is not tracking you. It's the websites that you're visiting that are still tracking you. Incognito mode simply means your browser isn't saving your history because you want to browse porn. It has nothing to do with trackers installed on the porn websites that continue to collect your information.

Some of those trackers installed are Google Analytics or other 3rd party analytics tools, which have nothing to do with Google Chrome or incognito mode.

Edit: Chrome clearly explains how it works:

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Put your pitchforks down.

This right here. People need to read the big disclaimer.

 

[_Spinn_]

Man I love being a FireFox user. I can just sit back and enjoy the show

Firefox for life!

 

[Premium1]

Bro, you must live a simultaneously incredibly charmed and incredibly boring life to have the time to read every single EULA you click "Accept" on. People out here working two jobs just to pay their bills and you're calling them lazy for not sitting down to read a novel every time they use a service or feature

Whatever you say, keep shifting the blame from who it should be on. Keep defending for zero accountability on people's part. You're probably one of those people who signs a contract and then complain when you get hit with fees/extras when you try to cancel it early. Working multiple jobs does not excuse the fact that consumers should be informed (and understand what they are signing for). But hey, if you want to just click through everything and then blame everyone else, you do you.

 

[Scotticus]

Whatever you say, keep shifting the blame from who it should be on. Keep defending for zero accountability on people's part. You're probably one of those people who signs a contract and then complain when you get hit with fees/extras when you try to cancel it early. Working multiple jobs does not excuse the fact that consumers should be informed (and understand what they are signing for). But hey, if you want to just click through everything and then blame everyone else, you do you.

Won't someone think of the duplicitous multinational corporations?!

 

[Premium1]

Won't someone think of the duplicitous multinational corporations?!

Nah I don't care about them. One can not be for big corporations and also want people to take some personal responsibility. I know it is such a foreign concept to some.