New Study Shows Google Tracking Persists Even With Privacy Tools
Google and its tracking of user activity is nothing now but a recent study by SafetyDetectives, conducted across the US, UK, Switzerland, and Sweden, reveals the pervasive nature of Google’s tracking mechanisms across the internet.
The research, shared with Hackread.com, indicates that while privacy-focused search engines like DuckDuckGo can reduce exposure, completely escaping Google’s reach remains a significant challenge. The study simulated locations using a virtual machine and VPN to ensure accurate regional data collection.
The findings reveal that Google’s tracking extends far beyond its own products, embedded deeply within countless websites through tools like Google Analytics, AdSense, and YouTube embeds. This data helps Google build detailed user profiles for targeted advertising and personalisation, the researchers claim.
The study highlights that Google tracking can be reduced by 50% with DuckDuckGo, particularly in countries with stronger privacy regulations like Switzerland and Sweden. For instance, Google Analytics, a tool for website traffic analysis, appeared on only 14%–17% of DuckDuckGo visits in these privacy-focused nations, a notable drop from 45%–53% when using Google Search.
However, the report also found that in the US, over 40% of pages still sent data to Google even when DuckDuckGo was used. In the UK, a slight improvement was observed, with tracking dropping from 47% on Google to 29% with DuckDuckGo. Google Analytics, described as “everywhere,” was detected in one in five DuckDuckGo sessions across all four countries.
The research also pinpointed specific content categories where Google tracking is more prevalent. Such as YouTube and product-related searches consistently triggered a higher likelihood of Google tracking, regardless of the search engine used.
Conversely, visits to platforms like Wikipedia and TikTok showed minimal to no Google tracking. This suggests that the type of content accessed plays a crucial role in the extent of data collection by Google.
The study emphasises that location significantly influences the degree of Google tracking. In the US, Google trackers were nearly unavoidable, often present on 100% of websites visited in some tests, even when a privacy-focused alternative like DuckDuckGo was employed.
This was primarily due to embedded analytics and ads on news and commercial sites. In contrast, Sweden and Switzerland demonstrated fewer instances of tracking, with DuckDuckGo proving more effective in blocking trackers, especially on news articles and Wikipedia.
Google Analytics emerged as the most widely used tracker across all four countries, appearing on nearly 50% of visited sites, reflecting its deep integration into web infrastructure. Other prominent trackers included Google Services (APIs, Maps, Fonts, Gtag), which are general services integrating Google’s infrastructure. Their integration was particularly high in Sweden and the US.
DoubleClick, an ad tracking service, appeared more frequently in Switzerland, while YouTube embeds, allowing videos to be played on other sites, showed higher usage in the US and UK compared to Sweden or Switzerland.
This comprehensive data highlights that even with privacy regulations like GDPR, Google’s embedded services continue to collect user data, making a complete escape difficult for the average internet user.
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