You can't make someone half-pregnant. You can't preserve privacy in "some products". You've got to do it across the board. For example, Google is in the busines

You can't make someone half-pregnant. You can't preserve privacy in "some products". You've got to do it across the board. For example, Google is in the business of tracking your location to sub-meter accuracy. Then corroborate that information with everybody else to create a shadow social graph. They don't need to ask users for their friend list, a la Facebook 2005, and that is a reason why they gave up on building an explicit social network after Google Plus faltered: they've got the data through a different channel. Whenever Google pays lip service to privacy, it is because they have alternate, possibly higher accuracy, privacy violating channels in place. In the specific case of Chrome, it's likely they are concerned about the legal fallout from Microsoft / Internet Explorer antitrust hearings.