Here’s What Google Knows About You (and how you can delete it) - Comments Page 2

I have several Google accounts and no problem with the info they collect in general, but your link: https://myactivity.google.com/myactivity leads to a blank page in my Vivaldi browser.....not at all helpful.

Googles latest take on privacy.

"With FLoC, by simply browsing the web, you are automatically placed into a group based on your browsing history (“cohort”). Websites you visit will immediately be able to access this group FLoC ID and use it to target ads or content at you. It’s like walking into a store where they already know all about you! In addition, while FLoC is purported to be more private because it is a group, combined with your IP address (which also gets automatically sent to websites) you can continue to be tracked easily as an individual."

Time to ditch Google Chrome

Tress is 100% correct. Bob, you are very naive. Perhaps years ago Google was innocuous, but no more. We are heading more towards a police state and Google is a master at knowing who you are, and whether you follow the dictates of one side (or not).
A year or so ago, I would have considered my above paragraph to have been written by someone who was paranoid. After the insane actions that are going on today, I now believe it to be true.
Google is not your friend. Just note how many times it wants you to login to a particular page through your Google account. Its tentacles reach far and wide. No thank you.

Thanks for the info, Bob. It was really useful. I use google as one of my emails and for YouTube. I had no idea I'd been dragged to the cross-roads and been forced to sell my soul to the devil. (Does it mean that I can now play guitar?)
Perhaps I was given a warning... And believe me, as a long time reader I am so embarrassed about this next bit. It was very late and I was beyond tired (my only excuse) when Bing's lousy news feed angered me beyond reason (Prince bloody Harry - again).
I decided to download Chrome to see if they had fixed it to play properly on my Surface yet, so off I went to Google. Perhaps I blinked. I certainly didn't check. In the recesses of my tiny mind, I did register that something was funny that I was having to press download again, but I completely ignored it.
When I actually opened Chrome, I couldn't make sense of a folder marked pop-ups on the title bar, nor of a warning about pop-ups, so I shut the whole thing down without actually using it as a browser, and went to bed, deciding I would work it out at a later date, set my default back to Bing, then completely forgot about it. Was that the warning that Google was evil?
I seldom check spam but about a fortnight later, I did. The morning after the chrome incident I'd received an email that Google had flagged as dangerous to respond to.
It was lovely. Its header was the first part of a psswd I'd used before changing to Last Pass. It said they had my passwords and mailing list.
Apparently when I was on a p*rn site they had downloaded a keylogger and had also filmed me 'enjoying myself'.
Unless I sent them £4,800 and change, they would send everyone on my list an excerpt of what I was watching and what I was doing. (A craft channel perhaps, and me doing crafts? I've never actually been to a p*rn site - ever) NB statistically, women prefer print to pictures.
Nasty, though. Especially since the dodgy Chrome exe would have apparently jumped the user to p*rn if used.
You guessed it. I'd been jumped away from the real Google site, and didn't notice. The price for my absolute stupidity was cleaning out my computer. Getting rid of the bad program and Malwarebytes sorted that, a couple of hours changing all my passwords, and increased vigilance over my credit cards, just in case. All with the spectre of Mr. Rankin tutting over my shoulder.
Oh yeah, nearly forgot; DON'T SHOUT AT BOB!

Data mining and "targeted" ads aren't new but current technology makes everything faster, if not necessarily better. During the years it was owned by the Tandy Corp., you couldn't get out of a RadioShack without giving them a mailing address. I don't play golf at all, but after buying a golf-related gift for my brother, I was inundated for years by ads for golf paraphernalia. I have medical conditions that attract zillions of snake oil sales pitches. That's not relevant, its just aggravating. I go to great lengths to avoid being tracked by Google or anyone else, mostly to avoid that kind of thing. The algorithms seem to be wrong more often than not at predicting what I might actually buy.

Seems rather superficial to think that Google, Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, your smart tv, etc. are just scraping your data so they can more easily target relevant ads at you. First off, ads are way more effective than you probably believe -- they are targeting your emotions so you are not going to outsmart the advertiser with your rational mind. More than that, a massive amount of data about you is being accumulated, which will eventually get to the point of them knowing you better than you know yourself. Good luck stopping the impact of advertising then.
They don't need to collect personally-identifying information. They know it's you because it's your phone/computer and they know your behaviour. More than that -- they don't care about you. You're just a number, part of this or that demographic.

Disclaimer: I am a conservative! Trees, slow down..Cancel culture is wrong no matter what side uses it! The article was relevant and informative. That said it is clear Google has entered into nefarious stages of censorship. Ask your self why Bob's article was generic?...because if Bob bashed Google they in turn would bury Bob into oblivion, in fact it is the only way to truly have all Google data erased....just publicly bash them as a web site/utuber/ or on any other form of internet media they control or can make you vanish via the algos of the search engine...Bob knows...we all know.....

@chris What century are you living in? :)