If a Google search results page instructs your browser to request some bytes to preload from a Google server, that request does not reveal anything new to anyon

If a Google search results page instructs your browser to request some bytes to preload from a Google server, that request does not reveal anything new to anyone. Google already knows it instructed your browser to preload, so knowing that your browser mechanically followed that request tells it nothing new about you or your behavior that it didn't already have another way to know. Let's consider the alternative. Imagine you searched for [headache] and a preload request was made to mayoclinic from your browser for their headache document. Your browser when making that fetch would send to mayoclinic your ip, any stored mayoclinic cookies, and the document URL that you prefetched (not the precise query, but the approximate query is easy to guess). This is sent to mayoclinic _even if_ you never click on that document at all, which is not what you would expect privacy-wise. Once you do click, mayoclinic can very easily log this visit even if the document bytes were preloaded from elsewhere. They can use javascript analytics or simply even load an image on their server (https://amp.dev/documentation/components/amp-pixel https://amp.dev/documentation/components/amp-pixel). And you as a user are not surprised that clicking on mayoclinic shares your interest in the document with mayoclinic.