People seem to be conflating &quot;tracking user behavior&quot; with &quot;tracking user behavior without consent or transparency&quot;. Yes, there are plenty of people opposed to the former, but that is a moot point with respect to Google.<p>The latter, however, is symptomatic of a much bigger issue: there is a pervasive belief amongst many of the silicon elite that users simply aren&#x27;t capable of making effective decisions regarding tracking, and therefore it is best if they are not allowed to make those decisions. I have heard this directly from many people, and each time it leaves me surprised.<p>If Google were to provide real transparency into the information they track about me, that would be fantastic. I likely wouldn&#x27;t even look at it, but I would know that organizations like the EFF and ACLU would serve as ombudspeople for the public. Furthermore, whichever of the big internet players does this first will likely generate a tremendous amount of brand loyalty and free marketing.<p>I suspect current behavior won&#x27;t change without legal intervention, which will potentially be adversarial, which is a shame since there are people at these companies who are much more qualified than lawmakers to anticipate and plan for the future.<p>It&#x27;s amazing that a company (and industry) that self-identifies so strongly with taking novel approaches to solving hard problems can get mired in such status quo bias.