Many years ago, when someone would ask some easily discoverable question, I would respond with “Google is your friend.” I haven’t said that for a long time now because Google most emphatically is not your friend.
If you think that’s hyperbole, consider that Google has quietly dropped its ban on linking user names and browsing history. They already have both pieces of data but have, in the past, promised not to link them. That promise has gone to live with their similarly retired motto of “Don’t be evil.”
One would hope that there’d be a backlash but of course there won’t be. Google, Facebook, and the other members of the adtech coven will go right on collecting all the information about us they can. Why not? That’s their business, after all. On a more hopeful note, I expect that just as an addict can’t resist one more hit, they will eventually go too far and rouse even a somnolent congress from their slumbers. They’re going to hate it when the GDPR becomes international law and they have to start living up to their promises.
UPDATE :
I just noticed that the ProPublica article linked above is from 2016. Nonetheless, everything I said in the article is still true even if Google’s comeuppance is taking longer than I hoped.