Chrome & User Data

Google's Chrome browser does collect user data and send it back to Google.

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Google has admitted the auto-suggest feature of Chrome's Omnibox gives it potential access to users' keystrokes, providing the company with a wealth of information on the browsing habits of its users.

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"When you type URLs or queries in the address bar, the letters you type are sent to Google so the Suggest feature can automatically recommend terms or URLs you may be looking for"

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Unlike searching through Google, so long as the user has auto-suggest enabled, and Google set as their default search engine, the Omnibox will grant Google access to search enquiries without the user ever hitting the enter key.


Google says it intends to store about 2% of this information, alongside the IP address of the computer that typed it.

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SOURCE:

http://www.pcpro.co.uk/news/222834/g...addresses.html

So, if you don't want that to happen, just disable the autosuggest feature and don't have Google as your default search engine ;)

Hmm, does this happen with IE and FF? Do all browsers store information such as IP blah blah?

That is a very good question, and I guess it all boils down to the old trade-off between security and functionality?


1. All major browsers keep history, caches and temporary files. (Chrome, Safari, IE, FF, Opera). This is an intended feature to potentially improve their efficiency or level of "customer service".

2. Operating systems also hold history, caches, index files, page files, and temporary files.

3. ISPs do the same for traffic that passes through them. Those are their "logs".

I would not, however, expect them to supply that information to a third party, without my explicit consent (opt-in), or legal requirement to do so.

I am sure you have come across the age old controversy of what Windows and IE store, because of their close integration?

Well, Google is a search engine company that makes most of its revenue out of advertising.............. so what do you think that they will be inclined to do? :cool::eek: Remembering that this is their browser.

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Hmm, does this happen with IE and FF?

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I would say to some extent, yes. If you're using Firefox, there's a nice little add-on called CustomizeGoogle that can prevent Google from using cookies to collect information about your surfing habits. Read the sections under 'Privacy' in CustomizeGoogle to see what I mean.

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Remembering that this is their browser

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Something tells me that so long as your use their search engine, they feel it's appropriate to monitor certain activities.

Does this really surprise anybody? And even if Google didn't keep this data every single URL you visit will be logged in at least a few places, specifically every upstream ISP your requests pass through. Google logs your searches, Amazon has complex analysis of your purchases, every phone call you make is filtered through government systems, and your face will be on at least 10 different CCTV recordings every day. There is no such thing as privacy in this day and age; the bottom line is that if you want to obtain this you need to never have existed at all. Might as well get with the program and accept the fact that in your head is the only place your secrets are safe.

Everyone has to remember that this is because of Google Suggest (or whatever the official name is).

It's no different than if you use Google.com and have suggest enabled, or if you use your Firefox search box and suggest is enabled.

When you type in the search box in Firefox and "suggestions" appear, those suggestions are powered by Google Suggest and they appear because you are sending the query as you type it (essentially it's a filter). Of course google is going to log some of that data... every search engine does.

So really, this is no different then using any other browser.. the only difference is that google has combined the search box and address bar into a single bar... where as other browsers have kept them separate.

I don't like it. I don't need the suggestions. They are annoying.
It is the same with any browser, not just chrome. I use firefox,
and noticed the annoying suggestions, but also noticed that
Google's page was taking longer to initially load, reading from
clients1.google.com

I blocked it with adblock, and the page loaded faster and the
suggestions went away. Apparently you can set preferences
on Google to disable this feature, but only if you accept their
cookie.

Well, they are starting to backpedal already :D

http://www.computerworld.com/action/...icleId=9114369

I still don't see any justification in recording the IP address of a user except,perhaps, as part of some profit gouging scam?