Security News > 2020 > February > Is Chrome really secretly stalking you across Google sites using per-install ID numbers? We reveal the truth

Google is potentially facing a massive privacy and GDPR row over Chrome sending per-installation ID numbers to the mothership.

"This Chrome-Variations header will not contain any personally identifiable information, and will only describe the state of the installation of Chrome itself, including active variations, as well as server-side experiments that may affect the installation," Google explains in a paper describing Chrome capabilities.

"When you install Google Chrome, your installation gets assigned a random number 0 and 7999 and this number is mixed with a number given by Google's servers, depending on your country, your IP address, and other criteria that Google decides," explained Granal.

"This identifier is stored on your computer, and sent every time your Google Chrome communicates with Google *including* DoubleClick services."

"The risk in general is bounded by the fact that this ID is apparently only sent to sites controlled by a single organization," he added, referring to Google.

News URL

https://go.theregister.co.uk/feed/www.theregister.co.uk/2020/02/05/google_chrome_id_numbers/