Online privacy has been a major talking point over the last few years and even more so, this year given the trouble that WhatsApp has been in. But it now seems that Google is the other company on the edge of the sword with its latest lawsuit.

The American company faced a federal judge on Friday who stated that it must face a lawsuit over tracking users’ activities in Chrome‘s incognito mode.

As reported by Bloomberg, Google had appealed to the Californian court to throw out the case, but the judge turned down the request. Another report reiterated this stating that the tech giant no risks up to $5 billion in damages- nearly $5,000 per user.

Start off your week with tech news recap and trending conversations in your inbox

Enter valid email-id

Subscribe

I prefer it on Telegram

The initial class-action lawsuit had been filed by three users alleging that the Google Chrome browser collects data even if you’re using the private (incognito) mode.

They said that after you disable online tracking in the browser other Google tools used by websites pass on your personal information to the company. Furthermore, they alleged that the company engages in a “pervasive data tracking business.”

Like we have heard previously, the firm responded to these accusations saying that Chrome won’t save your activity while browsing in incognito mode. Rather, it is websites that users visit that tend to collect some of their information.

“We strongly dispute these claims and we will defend ourselves vigorously against them. Incognito mode in Chrome gives you the choice to browse the internet without your activity being saved to your browser or device. As we clearly state each time you open a new incognito tab, websites might be able to collect information about your browsing activity during your session.”

This comes as Google is in the process of scraping third-party cookies on Chrome by 2022 to reduce user data tracking.