Google Puts Profits Over Privacy by Permitting User Fingerprinting ⇥ bbc.com

Imran Rahman-Jones, BBC News:

However the company [Google] had previously come out strongly against this kind of data collection, saying in a 2019 blog that fingerprinting “subverts user choice and is wrong.”

But in a post announcing the new rule changes, Google said the way people used the internet – such as devices like smart TVs and consoles – meant it was harder to target ads to users using conventional data collection, which users control with cookie consent.

It also says more privacy options provide safety to users.

Something close to fingerprinting is what Google does with reCAPTCHA, though it still promises none of that information is used for targeted ads. If you improve your privacy protections online, you will see a lot more challenges from services like reCAPTCHA, including those from Cloudflare, and it makes using the web far more tedious.

Though Google previously prohibited fingerprinting for ads, plenty of ad tech businesses enabled the capability anyway. Even so, Google’s co-sign legitimizes this invasive and unethical practice. Google says there are better “privacy-enhancing technologies” but that feels like it comes with a caveat as ad tech businesses constantly innovate to evade them and track users regardless.

A law, please, with debilitating penalties for violations.