– ‘Koh said she’s “disturbed” by Google’s data collection practices’
– ‘Koh said she finds it “unusual” that the company would make the “extra effort” of data collection if it doesn’t use the information to build user profiles or targeted advertising‘
– ‘The judge demanded an explanation “about what exactly Google does,” while voicing concern that visitors to the court’s website are unwittingly disclosing information to the company. “I want a declaration from Google on what information they’re collecting on users to the court’s website, and what that’s used for”’
None of this implies that this judge, who has specialised in litigation involving SV tech companies for a decade, can’t understand “basic aspects about web browsers.”
> None of this implies that this judge, who has specialised in litigation involving SV tech companies for a decade, can’t understand “basic aspects about web browsers.”
The quotes make it clear that the judge is confused about what incognito mode is supposed to do. The judge appears to think incognito mode is supposed to somehow prevent tracking scripts from loading. Like Google is supposed to add a fingerprint to web requests in incognito mode which reveals to web servers that the user has incognito mode, and then all the web tracking companies are supposed to detect this fingerprint and stop tracking when they detect it. That doesn't sound like a person who understands basic aspects about web browsers.
– ‘Koh said she’s “disturbed” by Google’s data collection practices’
– ‘Koh said she finds it “unusual” that the company would make the “extra effort” of data collection if it doesn’t use the information to build user profiles or targeted advertising‘
– ‘The judge demanded an explanation “about what exactly Google does,” while voicing concern that visitors to the court’s website are unwittingly disclosing information to the company. “I want a declaration from Google on what information they’re collecting on users to the court’s website, and what that’s used for”’
None of this implies that this judge, who has specialised in litigation involving SV tech companies for a decade, can’t understand “basic aspects about web browsers.”