Texas attorney general Ken Paxton filed a lawsuit against Google on Thursday (May 19), saying that the "private browsing" mode of Google search engine was deceptive, saying that "in fact, even if users use stealth mode, Google will fraudulently collect a series of personal data."
Stealth mode or "private browsing" is a web browser function. Paxton said that this mode itself means that Google will not and cannot track data such as search history or location coordinates.
Earlier, Texas, Indiana, Washington and the District of Columbia filed lawsuits against Google in state courts in January, accusing them of so-called deceptive location tracking practices that violated users' privacy.
Paxton's lawsuit was supplemented on the basis of the lawsuit filed in January, adding the deception of Google's stealth mode, accusing Google of misleading consumers by continuing to track their location when users try to stop being tracked. Texas said that Google has a "location history" setting. If users choose to turn it off, it will notify users that "the places you have been to will no longer be stored".
According to the lawsuit, Google offers "private browsing" options, which may include "viewing highly personalized websites that may display users' medical history, political beliefs or sexual orientation. Or users may just want to buy a surprise gift, but they are detected by the recipient of the gift because of a series of targeted advertisements."
Google has yet to respond to a request for comment on the lawsuit.
In January, Google said, "the attorney general is suing based on inaccurate statements and outdated assertions about our settings. We have always built privacy features into our products and provided strong control over location data."