By Paresh Dave

(Reuters) – Google Chief Executive Sundar Pichai in 2019 was warned that describing the company’s Incognito browsing mode as “private” was problematic, yet it stayed the course because he did not want the feature “under the spotlight,” according to a new court filing.

Google spokesman José Castañeda told Reuters that the filing “mischaracterizes emails referencing unrelated second and third-hand accounts.”

In light of growing concerns over online surveillance, privacy disclosures made by Alphabet Inc (NASDAQ:) Inc have been under scrutiny from regulators and lawyers in recent years.

Last June, users claimed that Google tracked their browsing habits in Incognito with its Chrome browser. Google claims that Incognito doesn’t prevent any data from being saved on users’ devices and has been fighting the suit.

Attorneys for users stated in a U.S. court written update that Incognito only prevents data from being saved to a user’s device.

Citing Google documents, the attorneys stated that Pichai was informed by Twohill in 2019 that Incognito shouldn’t be called ‘private’ as that could lead to “exacerbating existing misconceptions regarding Incognito’s protections.”

According to the filing, Pichai stated that during those conversations, he decided that Incognito should not be referred to as ‘private’ because it ran “the risk of exacerbating known misconceptions about protections Incognito mode provides.” Google did not address those issues.

Castañeda said teams “routinely discuss ways to improve the privacy controls built into our services.” Google attorneys stated that they will not support attempts to remove Pichai or Twohill.

The plaintiffs had deposed Brian Rakowski, Google vice president and “father” Incognito mode. He stated that although Google claims Incognito lets users browse “privately,” the realities of what they expect are “not consistent with reality.” According to the lawsuits, his testimony was rejected.

Google lawyers rejected this summary and wrote that Rakowski stated terms like “private”, anonymous, “invisible” and “super helpful” when explaining Incognito.