$5 Billion US Lawsuit Against Google for Privacy Violations Moves Forward
Google is certainly no stranger to accusations of collecting customer data, using it as they want, and even selling it to third parties. In fact, this is one of the primary ways that they make money. At its core, Google (including Chrome, Search, YouTube, gMail, and their other services) are simply data collection and advertising companies.
A lawsuit initially filed in June of 2020 accuses the tech giant of taking this data collection to far. The suit says that Google intentionally continues to track user’s personal data, even when the users are in Chrome browser’s ‘incognito’ mode. This mode of browsing is believed by most users to allow them to browse the web without any data being stored or collected.
District Judge Lucy Koh in California has just announced that the lawsuit can and should move forward as a $5 billion class action suit. In the ruling, the judge said that Google, “did not notify users that Google engages in the alleged data collection while the user is in private browsing mode.”
This ruling will allow the class action suit to move forward. Of course, even if Google loses this suit and has to pay out $5 billion, that is just a drop in the bucket compared to the revenue they have generated by collecting and selling customer data.
Putting Your Privacy First
Over the past year Google has made several announcements indicating that they are going to be taking steps to improve customer privacy on their products. This latest lawsuit, however, shows that once again, this is just Google paying lip service to the growing privacy concerns that people have. The reality is, Google’s entire empire was built primarily on their ability to collect data and use or sell it. They are undoubtedly going to be reluctant or unwilling to stop this practice.
The continued abuse of customers is one reason why a growing number of people are moving to privacy focused browsers and search engines. There are several out there available. For the average person who doesn’t want to go through the complex task of ‘hardening’ a browser themselves, the best option is the Brave Browser. Brave is built off of the Chromium platform, which means everything will work normally just like it does in Chrome. The difference, however, is that this browser does not collect any personal data.
To make it even better, Brave also blocks virtually all ads while you are browsing. And the icing on the cake is that they have an opt-in ad system that allows you to accept certain ads (only if you want to) and for each ad you view, you earn their BAT token (a simple cryptocurrency that as of this writing is worth $.81). That’s right, you can get paid for browsing the web. I’ve been using Brave for over a year now and it is much faster, cleaner, and easier than Chrome. I’ve also earned over 150 BAT during that time.
Whether you are interested in cryptocurrency or not, moving from Google Chrome to the Brave Browser is something that anyone who values their privacy, or a quality browsing experience, should absolutely consider.