Interesting, I wasn't aware Google had actually stated "we don't use this data for tracking, and we only use it for link protection" (does it?). Assuming true:

Interesting, I wasn't aware Google had actually stated "we don't use this data for tracking, and we only use it for link protection" (does it?). Assuming true: you are right in that it's basically no-win. The fact that Google draws so much revenue from advertising makes it difficult to reconcile. Nothing short of a third-party code audit of Google's code against their asserted privacy policy would appease everyone. And even then, there would be doubters.