Sundar Pichai would have concealed the fact that the private mode of the Chrome browser collects data from users. This is what the prosecutors claim in a major lawsuit against the tech company on Thursday based on an email exchange between Pichai and Lorraine Twohill, the marketing head at Google.
Pichai would have been aware of the alleged data collection as early as 2019. Twohill then advised the top man not to label the so-called Incognito mode “as private, because that leads to misconceptions about the protection it provides”. According to the prosecutors, Pichai then decided not to do anything with the warning, because he did not want “the mode to be scrutinized”.
Google spokesperson José Castañeda tells Reuters that the prosecutors”misinterpreted the e-mail exchange.” The spokesperson did not explain exactly what was wrong with the interpretation of the lawyers.
Google was sued in the United States in June for allegedly violating users ‘ privacy. Google would also collect data from people using the private mode of the Internet Browser, and according to the prosecutors that is illegal. The prosecutors want Google’s parent company Alphabet to pay at least $ 5 billion.