In this week’s Cyber Blurbs Roundup, we cover the massive lawsuit facing Google, TikTok’s battle with Apple over user privacy, and Signal’s final days inside mainland China.
Here goes:
Google to Face Massive Lawsuit Over Incognito Mode
A US district judge will allow a class-action lawsuit against Google to continue, according to Bloomberg, with the tech giant being accused of misrepresenting the amount of privacy offered to its users while surfing the web on Google Chrome via Incognito Mode. The lawsuit is seeking $5 billion (billion with a “B”) in tracking violations.
Google’s attempt to have the lawsuit thrown out was denied, with the company arguing that it makes no attempt to hide the level of tracking that may still occur despite enabling the private browsing mode. Google claims that, despite having “gone incognito,” the browser still notifies users of “activity that might still be visible.” That includes websites visited, internet service providers, and a user’s employer or school.
US District Judge Lucy Koh concluded (via Bloomberg) that, despite the company’s attempt at transparency, “Google did not notify users that Google engages in the alleged data collection while the user is in private browsing mode.”
Google, of course, “strongly dispute[s]” the claims.
“Incognito mode in Chrome gives you the choice to browse the Internet without your activity being saved to your browser or device,” a Google representative told Bloomberg. “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.”
Google’s Incognito message (and disclaimer) is presented to users whenever they open a new private window or tab.
TikTok Trying to Skirt Apple’s Privacy Policies
It’s been a little while since we’ve talked about Apple’s shift toward user privacy (no, not really — here’s a blog from just two weeks ago). The latest development comes from every privacy aficionado's favorite social media app: TikTok.
No longer a daily headline thanks to a change in residency over at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave., TikTok made a bit of noise this week when its parent company ByteDance was said to be working on a “tool to bypass Apple’s new privacy rules and continue tracking iPhone users without their consent,” according to a report from the Financial Times (h/t ArsTechnica).
Apple’s new changes, due out soon as part of iOS 14.5, will now require app developers to receive explicit permission from iPhone and iPad users to track them across other applications — otherwise known as Identifier for Advertisers (IDFA). That means users will now have the ability to say no, which has the mobile app and digital advertising industry shaking in their proverbial boots.
The China Advertising Association has developed a different way to track and identify iPhone users. Known as CAID, the tool is said to be capable of essentially bypassing Apple’s new law of the land. According to documents obtained by the Financial Times, ByteDance reportedly noted that advertisers “can use the CAID as a substitute if the user’s IDFA is unavailable.”
But while the China Advertising Association claims CAID is not in opposition to Apple’s privacy shift, Apple is said to have sent out warnings to at least two Chinese app developers to stop them from using CAID as a tracking method.
China Blocks Signal
Signal is no longer available in China.
(How Signal managed to survive this long in a country so seemingly fixated on controlling the flow of information among its citizens in the first place is beyond us, but that’s neither here nor there.)
The popular messaging app appears to have gone dark as of March 15, with many users noting that without the use of a VPN service, the application would fail to execute messages and phone calls. Signal’s website also appears to be unavailable in mainland China, according to TechCrunch.
Signal, a messaging platform offering end-to-end encryption, joins Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter as one of the more popular western apps to be banned in China.
News of the app’s ban comes just a few weeks after its surge in popularity across the globe following a catastrophic fall from grace for fellow messaging app WhatsApp. Earlier this year, WhatsApp announced plans to begin sharing user data with parent company, Facebook, Inc. That prompted many privacy-concerned users to make a shift, with many finding a home with Signal and Telegram.
