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I can't disagree that's it's possible for Google to match up all the stuff it has on people and can get from others. In fact, I made that same assertion in anot

I can't disagree that's it's possible for Google to match up all the stuff it has on people and can get from others. In fact, I made that same assertion in another thread some time ago and got super down-voted over it. However, there are lots of totally legal scenarios in which two parties match up and combine data on a user containing PII. I also would like to know if you believe there's something ethically wrong with combining data, provided it's legal and doesn't violate a privacy policy. You haven't said so explicitly but that seems like the implication.

VikingCoder 6y ago
Espressosaurus made the assertion that it would be easy for Google to not collect enough PII to de-anonymize anyone (in Incognito Mode). I'm pointing out that if you: 1) log in to your gmail 2) Switch to incognito mode and go to a website that has Google ads on it And if Google has recorded your IP address in both those interactions (of course they have - everyone does), then Google has enough information on most people to de-anonymize them. Therefore, what Espressosaurus said is absurdly wrong and should not be taken seriously by anyone. Let's focus our efforts on saying how Google can analyze and use the data, rather than on whether they're allowed to gather it in the first place. Because it's ridiculous to pretend you can stop Google, or any website for that matter, from collecting IP addresses of logged-in users.