Court rules Google chief executive Sundar Pichai can be questioned for up to two hours by defendants who claimed Alphabet Inc’s Google was tracking their internet use while in “Incognito” browsing mode.
In their court filing, the defendants claim Pichai has “unique, personal knowledge” of issues relating to the Chrome browser and privacy concerns.
In a statement to Reuters, Google spokesman José Castareda said the new requests were “unethical and overreaching”. Despite strongly disputing the claims in this case, Castareda said that Google would continue to vigorously defend itself.
In September, a court filing revealed that in 2019 Pichai received warnings that describing the company’s Incognito mode as “private” would be problematic, but he remained firm because he did not want the feature “under the spotlight.”
Judge Susan van Keulen in San Jose, California, said “a few documents establish that specific relevant information was communicated to, and possibly from, Pichai,” supporting the defendants’ lawyers’ request to question him.
In an earlier statement, Google stated Incognito only prevents data from being saved to a user’s device and that the company was fighting the lawsuit.
Google was accused of violating users’ privacy by tracking browser use while Google Chrome was set in “private” mode, according to the lawsuit filed in June 2020.
A growing public concern about online surveillance has prompted regulatory and legal scrutiny of Alphabet’s privacy disclosures.
