Even were we to assume that Google is telling the truth regarding the activity tracking, let's switch the context here and make the setting relatively benign.

Even were we to assume that Google is telling the truth regarding the activity tracking, let's switch the context here and make the setting relatively benign. Imagine Microsoft or Apple were to reset settings around crash reporting, causing all Windows and MacOS systems to begin sending crash report data. Would this be acceptable? This would IMO be scummy as well. Even if all you say is true to the above, if company policy requires it to be off, then this is costing companies money to bring them into compliance with policy, suddenly, because of Google.