4 ms·

Woah, so if a user is logged into chrome, Google has permission / is able to track all web activity for that user?

lmkg 5y ago
The feature is called "Google Signals." Here are documentation links to how it's use in Google Ads & Google Analytics. Ads: https://support.google.com/ads/answer/2662856#zippy=,when-youre-signed-in https://support.google.com/ads/answer/2662856#zippy=,when-yo... Analytics: https://support.google.com/analytics/answer/9445345?hl=en&ref_topic=9303474#zippy=,in-this-article https://support.google.com/analytics/answer/9445345?hl=en&re... tl;dr If logged in to Chrome, your Google Account can be used as an "identity signal" in place of a first-party cookie. This allows cross-domain and cross-device tracking.
ec109685 5y ago
Yes, if you have this option enabled, “Automatically send usage statistics and crash reports to Google”
aikinai 5y ago
There’s a setting (Web and App Activity) to let Google collect activity on Google properties to use for personalization features. I’m pretty sure it does not track any activity on non-Google properties.
- ramraj07 5y ago
  I'll believe with at best 70% confidence.
  - RNCTX 5y ago
    You’re more generous than me
- moffkalast 5y ago
  Or they only let you turn off tracking for google products, because those track you internally anyway and it makes no difference, while there's no way to turn off 3rd party tracking...
tata71 5y ago
Is this a real question? Hopefully no.
vasachi 5y ago
Doesn't chrome have browsing history sync?
- aasasd 5y ago
  Uh uh! While I'm obviously no fan of Google and Chrome, afaik the synced data is encrypted, or at least Goog says so. I.e. it's used just for syncing. Can't remember, though, if it's always encrypted, or just optionally encrypted.
  - milankragujevic 5y ago
    Optionally encrypted, if you provide your own sync passphrase.
aasasd 5y ago
Frankly, I'm not sure about the current state of things, seeing as it likely has changed several times in the past few years. However, a) I'm not sure why Goog would want to bother with browser accounts otherwise, and b) my use of Chrome ceased soonish after I had the following experience in the early 2010s: - set up a new empty site, listed absolutely nowhere, on quite dedicated hosting. - open it in Chrome. - a couple minutes later, observe Googlebot appearing in the visitor logs of the site. Lastly, if you go to the ‘My activity’ settings on Google, you can see: “Include Chrome history and activity from sites, apps, and devices that use Google services”, which I guess can still be dissected further. And I have some website visits from 2016 listed there: including Wikipedia, which doesn't seem to use Google Analytics currently (not sure about 2016)—though these could be visits through Google search. Also, text in the linked tweet directly says that Google tracks users on third-party sites through Chrome.
- panarky 5y ago
  Registered domain names are public information.
  - jeltz 5y ago
    Yes, whois is public but not all TLDs publish a list all domains and those lists of are usually updated only once per day. On the other hand it is very possible that they used the TLS transparency logs from the CA.
- adriancr 5y ago
  This could also be via dns records if you published some they would get scanned
  - TechBro8615 5y ago
    Cert transparency logs will show new subdomains too.
    - selfhoster11 5y ago
nonbirithm 5y ago
Last time I checked, they also removed the "identity consistency between browser and cookie jar" flag that controlled automatically signing into Chrome if you signed into a Google service like YouTube. It is no longer possible to turn it off.
BiteCode_dev 5y ago
Yes, they also probably have also an AI collecting what makes your activity a unique profile even if you are not logged in. Thanks to google search, map, analytics, android, dns, amp, google fonts and the like, you almost always load something from a google server if you browse the web.

lmkg 5y ago

The feature is called "Google Signals." Here are documentation links to how it's use in Google Ads & Google Analytics. Ads: https://support.google.com/ads/answer/2662856#zippy=,when-youre-signed-in https://support.google.com/ads/answer/2662856#zippy=,when-yo... Analytics: https://support.google.com/analytics/answer/9445345?hl=en&ref_topic=9303474#zippy=,in-this-article https://support.google.com/analytics/answer/9445345?hl=en&re... tl;dr If logged in to Chrome, your Google Account can be used as an "identity signal" in place of a first-party cookie. This allows cross-domain and cross-device tracking.

ec109685 5y ago

Yes, if you have this option enabled, “Automatically send usage statistics and crash reports to Google”

aikinai 5y ago

There’s a setting (Web and App Activity) to let Google collect activity on Google properties to use for personalization features. I’m pretty sure it does not track any activity on non-Google properties.

ramraj07 5y ago
I'll believe with at best 70% confidence.
- RNCTX 5y ago
  You’re more generous than me
moffkalast 5y ago
Or they only let you turn off tracking for google products, because those track you internally anyway and it makes no difference, while there's no way to turn off 3rd party tracking...

tata71 5y ago

Is this a real question? Hopefully no.

vasachi 5y ago

Doesn't chrome have browsing history sync?

aasasd 5y ago
Uh uh! While I'm obviously no fan of Google and Chrome, afaik the synced data is encrypted, or at least Goog says so. I.e. it's used just for syncing. Can't remember, though, if it's always encrypted, or just optionally encrypted.
- milankragujevic 5y ago
  Optionally encrypted, if you provide your own sync passphrase.

aasasd 5y ago

Frankly, I'm not sure about the current state of things, seeing as it likely has changed several times in the past few years. However, a) I'm not sure why Goog would want to bother with browser accounts otherwise, and b) my use of Chrome ceased soonish after I had the following experience in the early 2010s: - set up a new empty site, listed absolutely nowhere, on quite dedicated hosting. - open it in Chrome. - a couple minutes later, observe Googlebot appearing in the visitor logs of the site. Lastly, if you go to the ‘My activity’ settings on Google, you can see: “Include Chrome history and activity from sites, apps, and devices that use Google services”, which I guess can still be dissected further. And I have some website visits from 2016 listed there: including Wikipedia, which doesn't seem to use Google Analytics currently (not sure about 2016)—though these could be visits through Google search. Also, text in the linked tweet directly says that Google tracks users on third-party sites through Chrome.

panarky 5y ago
Registered domain names are public information.
- jeltz 5y ago
  Yes, whois is public but not all TLDs publish a list all domains and those lists of are usually updated only once per day. On the other hand it is very possible that they used the TLS transparency logs from the CA.
adriancr 5y ago
This could also be via dns records if you published some they would get scanned
- TechBro8615 5y ago
  Cert transparency logs will show new subdomains too.
  - selfhoster11 5y ago

nonbirithm 5y ago

Last time I checked, they also removed the "identity consistency between browser and cookie jar" flag that controlled automatically signing into Chrome if you signed into a Google service like YouTube. It is no longer possible to turn it off.

BiteCode_dev 5y ago

Yes, they also probably have also an AI collecting what makes your activity a unique profile even if you are not logged in. Thanks to google search, map, analytics, android, dns, amp, google fonts and the like, you almost always load something from a google server if you browse the web.