<i>So this shows Google's "evilness" about as much as it shows the evilness of the browser and OS the guy was using.</i><p>Enabling private browsing eliminates local browser history.  There is no such recourse for server-side tracking.  Even turning off cookies (and Flash [1]) won't stop that [2].<p><i>Apple controls closed-source software running on a location-aware personal device with a microphone on it that people carry around all the time.</i><p>There is merit to your accusation in that there is no way to monitor network traffic over 3G to verify that audio is not transmitted.  However, all cell phones allow basic geo-location via triangulation (most carriers lie about that), so if you don't want to be found you shouldn't have a cell phone at all.<p>[1 | <a href="http://www.wired.com/epicenter/2009/08/you-deleted-your-cookies-think-again/" rel="nofollow">http://www.wired.com/epicenter/2009/08/you-deleted-your-cook...</a>]<p>[2 | <a href="http://panopticlick.eff.org" rel="nofollow">http://panopticlick.eff.org</a>]