From TFA:

lawsuit that claims the company has a misleading menu that promises privacy but fails to provide it.

Really? What a shocker…

Google gave users a placebo button that doesn’t work to make them feel in control. But rest assured Google has no intention of giving anybody control of their privacy if they’re not legally obliged to do so - or if they can get the law rewritten to their advantage.

Fake buttons are a very common psychological trick. You can read more about it here.

And yet, somehow, everyone was surprised.

This is the best summary I could come up with:

A recently released video deposition in long-running lawsuit over Google tracking its users has claimed that even the CEO Sundar Pichai isn’t clear on what’s going on below him.

Jonathan Hochman, an expert witness for the plaintiffs, provided a technical analysis of Google data collection, but his report remains under seal.

Hochman in his deposition contends that even Google insiders, including Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai, misunderstand the WAA control.

This is spelled out more explicitly in a more recent court filing [PDF]: "For example, Google CEO Sundar Pichai testified to Congress that, within ‘My Account’ user can ‘clearly see what information is collected, stored.’

“The situation I found upon the technical investigation was counterintuitive, it was not what I expected to find, and it is, frankly, kind of Orwellian, it is just very strange that you have a privacy switch that when you flip it, it just means we don’t tell you that we’re spying on you,” he said.

Last year, the judge hearing the case dismissed [PDF] claims that alleged violation of the California Invasion of Privacy Act and breach of contract.

The original article contains 1,263 words, the summary contains 183 words. Saved 86%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!

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