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Comment by enumjorge | Hacker News Reader

The article is very light on details, but am I understanding correctly that the problem is google analytics not honoring settings in chrome? If so, I can't think of a solution that doesn't involve a tighter integration between websites and chrome, and if anything I think we should be moving away from that.

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They could set the do not track flag in incognito mode and honor the do not track flag on their web properties.

Wow, I didn't realize google analytics doesn't respect the do not track flag. But I just independently verified that is correct. It sounds like this is a simple and elegant solution to the problem (and the moral solution too).

I used a google analytics plugin for Gatsby, and it had a respectDoNotTrack configuration option when you set it up, which does respect it - but I presume that just doesn't send the data to google in the first place.

Incognito isn't a setting, per se, it's a policy. It scopes the cache, cookies, etc. to a sandbox that's deleted once all incognito windows are closed. Google Analytics doesn't even know this policy is in place. The only websites that "honor" incognito are media outlets with paywalls using tricks (tricks Google's always trying to fix) to detect that you're in incognito mode.

The problem isn't a technical one per se, but rather a legal one. Google the company is offering a browser that purports to make someone "incognito" while simultaneously working to track people who are using it - the exact opposite of what one would expect.

Mozilla isn't getting sued for the failings of Firefox's private mode because Mozilla doesn't operate a surveillance system that exploits those failings, and Facebook isn't getting sued for their exploitative surveillance because they aren't offering a product that claims to protect you.

I hate to be defending Google on this, but their Incognito Mode repeatedly states that the only thing it does is hide your activity from users on your computer, and explicitly points out that web sites can still see your activity.

We're all familiar with "the large print giveth and the small print taketh away", but when a company uses the fine print to do the exact opposite of what the large print advertises, they are heading towards fraudulent behavior.

The current result only makes sense if you appreciate how the technical details work together, and view Chrome and Analytics as independent entities - like if you're involved in tech. Take a step back and look at the high level combination of the two as one offering - Google offers to make you "incognito" and then actually does the exact opposite behind the scenes.

Don't know why you're being downvoted. Whenever I've successfully explained how Google works as a company, with even the most favorable tilt while still being honest most non,techies see it as you describe.

And like it or not the non jargonated users outnumber the jargon filled by many orders of magnitude, and they don't tend to react favorably when people talk out both sides of their mouth unless there id's something even more dire at stake.

It's the main text of any new window or tab opened in Incognito Mode. 14px to be exact. That's not small print!

Yep, I'm pretty sure for the majority of users it's for watching porn or logging in with a different account to something, rather than any expectation of privacy at the other end

I also use it on the rare occasions where I need to log in on someone else's computer. This way, I know all my logins will be ended when I close the browser.

Haha same. When using the printer in my apartment's "tenant office", I can at least know that a sandboxed incognito window will offer some protection.

Assuming someone hasn't installed a key logger or OS tracker :(

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