No surprises, trust me
Read the OP main question again.
Of course Google can track anything they want as long as you are using their services, but Chrome is definitely not the tool
Ignorance is bliss. Please stop spouting misinformation.
Yes, we all know that Google has major privacy issues, despite their slogan of 'don't be evil' or how they constantly try to manipulate the average user into believing that Google is in for their best interest. We must all understand that Google is a public media company and it is in it to make profit for themselves and their shareholders.
Code:
http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2008/08/google-privacy/
http://weblogs.mozillazine.org/asa/archives/2011/04/chrome_do_not_track.html
Chrome logs on installation a unique token.
It also uses a RLZ identifier (encoded string that contains how chrome was downloaded and used to measure promotional campaigns) on Google search query and on first launch and use of address bar.
Code:
http://static.googleusercontent.com/external_content/untrusted_dlcp/www.google.com/en/us/intl/en/landing/chrome/google-chrome-privacy-whitepaper.pdf
http://foliovision.com/2008/12/09/adwords-ppc-organic-rlz/
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/03/16/google_chrome_unique_identifier_change/
It also logs clientID
It also sends data through the Suggest feature, 404 errors and Bug tracker.
You should carefully read its Terms of Service. (They changed this after a big article on CNET exposing it.
Code:
http://news.cnet.com/8301-17939_109-10030522-2.html
What they do with this information, well, its clearly up to the users imagination. What would a
media company (Google is a media company and makes money through advertising) do with your information? Your guess is as good as mine.
Code:
http://www.conceivablytech.com/6891/business/google-menu-ad-tracking-a-case-of-bad-timing
Here is an account of a person working at Google
Code:
http://www.networkworld.com/community/blog/disconnect-take-control-data-you-share-digg-t
What was the biggest complaint you heard while working at Google?
Kennish: I was troubled by three things while there:
1. Data users ought to have reasonably expected to remain private being made public under business pressure - for the launch of Google Buzz, email contacts were exposed as followers by default to give the service an initial user base that could better compete with the Facebooks and Twitters; companies changing the rules when the market changes is an alarming privacy trend across the industry.
2. Bad actors inside the company maliciously accessing private user data - two such cases are externally known, one in which the victims were minors and neither admitted till uncovered by the press; any sufficiently large company faces a likelihood of similar breaches.
Power corrupts, absolute power corrupts absolutely.
