Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Google tracks individual users per Chrome installation ID

github.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

71–80 of 642 posts

Re: Google tracks individual users per Chrome installation ID

#71

Post by scoutt »

PII concept is not the same for everyone/everywhere. For GDPR we have:

> Article 4(1): ‘personal data’ means any information relating to an identified or identifiable natural person (‘data subject’); an identifiable natural person is one who can be identified, directly or indirectly, in particular by reference to an identifier such as a name, an identification number, location data, an online identifier or to one or more factors specific to the physical, physiological, genetic, mental, economic, cultural or social identity of that natural person;

If this chrome browser ID is matched against a (for example) google account, then they can track every single person. And that is just a couple of IDs, let alone all the quantity of data they have.

It's against GDPR to not be clear about this kind of ID. If my browser has an unique ID that is transmitted, then this ID can be coupled with other information to retrieve my identity and behavior, so it should be informed (in the EU).

EDIT: TD;LR, hiding behind "there is no PII in that ID" is not enough.

Re: Google tracks individual users per Chrome installation ID

#72

Post by Cthulhu_ »

_pmf_ wrote: post #8

Just ask: why does an advertising company make a browser?

When Chrome was first developed, browsers and the web were relatively slow, and slowing down due to the popularization of Javascript and heavier websites.

Google's worked on a number of technologies to make the web faster; Chrome (and V8), their own DNS, image and video compression technologies, AMP, HTTP/2 (SPDY), HTTP/3 (QUIC), webserver plugins (mod_pagespeed), benchmark tooling (Lighthouse), and extensive guides on website speed optimization.

The reason is simple; faster internet = faster browsing = more page views = more ad impressions + more behaviour tracking data points. And it's a win-win for Google as well, because it earns them goodwill (well, except for AMP); especially at the time Chrome was a breath of fresh air compared to Firefox, and it's taken a lot of time and effort just to keep up, with mixed results (to the point where a number of manufacturers have just given up and adopted Chrome's renderer).

Re: Google tracks individual users per Chrome installation ID

#73

Post by kmlx »

throwawa66 wrote: post #55
eitland wrote: post #27

I haven't read this carefully enough to decide exactly how bad it is, but one thing seems clear to me: From what I see many techies are now aware and upset, and hardly anyone seems to want to defend Google anymore. I consider it more likely than not that Google will take some real beatings in the years to come. Kind of like Microsoft was fined by the US and EU, forced to advertise for competing browsers and ridiculed…

More and more people are blocking ads. Google’s business model is under threat. They will turn into hyenas in order to survive.

i think their business model is just fine: https://www.google.co.uk/amp/s/9to5google.com/2020/02/03/alp...

Re: Google tracks individual users per Chrome installation ID

#74

Post by glyxbaer »

eitland wrote: post #27

I haven't read this carefully enough to decide exactly how bad it is, but one thing seems clear to me: From what I see many techies are now aware and upset, and hardly anyone seems to want to defend Google anymore. I consider it more likely than not that Google will take some real beatings in the years to come. Kind of like Microsoft was fined by the US and EU, forced to advertise for competing browsers and ridiculed…

When I moved into IT almost 10-15 years ago, Google was one of the companies that I adored (in a kind of naive way, but nevertheless..). Working at that company has always been a dream of mine. They had the reputation for hiring the best of the best engineers, with great benefits and work culture.

Meanwhile I'd hate to apply for them. Everything they do in terms of tracking, etc. has become so vile and almost evil that even Microsoft has a better standing among my peers..

Would love to hear some insight from ex employees on what changed on the inside of that company, but from the outside it doesn't even seem to be the same any more. Maybe they're just worse at hiding it..

Re: Google tracks individual users per Chrome installation ID

#75

Post by JMTQp8lwXL »

eitland wrote: post #27

I haven't read this carefully enough to decide exactly how bad it is, but one thing seems clear to me: From what I see many techies are now aware and upset, and hardly anyone seems to want to defend Google anymore. I consider it more likely than not that Google will take some real beatings in the years to come. Kind of like Microsoft was fined by the US and EU, forced to advertise for competing browsers and ridiculed…

There's been more than a few departures at Google recently. You have the profile departures of C-level execs; You've had prominent open source folks leaving projects like Angular. While some attrition is personal circumstance, you have to wonder how much is attributable to the changing identity of Google itself.

Re: Google tracks individual users per Chrome installation ID

#76

Post by floatingatoll »

metahost wrote: post #63
floatingatoll wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This comment is unreadable on mobile. https://i.imgur.com/jFusqw0.png Could you please remove the four-space indent? You can wrap each paragraph in * ... * if you want to italic them.

You may give https://hackerweb.app a try! Aside: It is read only though.

I don’t appreciate your link to a third-party reader here, because you’re implying that the contradiction of HN’s style guidelines (code formatting is for code) is somehow made acceptable by the existence of an app that reformats it for only a few readers.

If I switch to an app rather than ask the person to stop, the other HN mobile users who use a browser rather than app will continue to suffer. ”Use an app” is not an acceptable choice.

Re: Google tracks individual users per Chrome installation ID

#77

Post by throwawa66 »

tsukurimashou wrote: post #49
throwawa66 wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you know why that is?

because otherwise users would have a saying in the direction web browsers evolve and Google would be sad Half kidding there

So they’re accepting donations after all?

Re: Google tracks individual users per Chrome installation ID

#78

Post by gempir »

Cthulhu_ wrote: post #52
pier25 wrote: post #3

Chromium too?

As another commenter pointed out, the list of domains the header is sent to is part of the Chromium codebase: https://chromium.googlesource.com/chromium/src/+/master/comp...

this is just a test case. It could very well be a much bigger list.
Post reply on HN