Privacy lawsuits against Google

WASHINGTON: The Google search engine collects data on users who think they can be anonymous if they use a ‘‘private browsing’’ mode, Texas Attorneygeneral Ken Paxton said yesterday, filing an amended privacy lawsuit against the Alphabet Inc unit.

Texas, Indiana, Washington State and the District of Columbia filed separate suits against Google in January in state courts over what they called deceptive locationtracking practices that invade users’ privacy.

Paxton’s filing added Google’s Incognito mode to the lawsuit filed in January. Incognito mode or ‘‘private browsing’’ is a web browser function that Paxton said implies Google will not track search history or location activity.

The lawsuit said ‘‘in reality, Google deceptively collects an array of personal data even when a user has engaged Incognito mode’’.

Google said yesterday the filing was ‘‘based on inaccurate claims and outdated assertions’’. — Reuters