Forget Chrome--Google Starts Tracking All Your Devices In 8 Weeks

https://www.forbes.com/sites/zakdoffman/2024/12/19/forget-chrome-google-will-start-tracking-you-and-all-your-smart-devices-in-8-weeks/

With Google’s last tracking u-turn fresh in the mind, here comes another one. Not only have cookies won a stay of execution, it now looks like digital fingerprinting is back as well. But as one regulator has pointed out, Google itself has said that this type of tracking “subverts user choice and is wrong.” And yet here we are—wrong or not. “We think this change is irresponsible,” the regulator warns.

For its part, Google cites advances in so-called privacy-enhancing technologies (PETs) as raising the bar for user privacy, enabling it to loosen the shackles on advertisers and the hidden trackers that underpin the internet and make the whole ecosystem work. This, it says, will unlock “new ways for brands to manage and activate their data safely and securely,” while “also giving people the privacy protections they expect.” The risk is that this simply rolls the dark side of tracking cookies forward into a new era, and in a way that is impossible for users to unpick to understand their risks.

The specifics are complex—these are the algorithms that ingest all the data signals you give off when browsing the internet on any device, some based on who you are—device, IP and credential identifiers, but also the sites you visit and apps you use as a map to be followed and analyzed. The change has been prompted, Google explains, in part by “the broader range of surfaces on which ads are served.” This includes smart TVs and gaming consoles, as well as all your usual browser and app activity.

While Chrome has taken plenty of flack for tracking, this takes it to a new, very different level. “In the past decade,” Google says, “the way people engage with the internet changed dramatically. So we’re constantly evaluating our policies to ensure they reflect the latest evolutions in technology and meet our partners’ needs and users’ expectations.” And so from February 16, Google will be “less prescriptive with partners in how they target and measure ads” across “the broader range of surfaces on which ads are served (such as Connected TVs and gaming consoles).”