Most of what Google is mentioning here is not new. They're still tracking you, and still learning about you and what you do on the Internet. They don't sell your browsing history or identity to advertisers, and as far as I'm aware, they never have; that's their golden goose. What they sell is access to a certain type of users based on what they've learned about you from your browsing history. For many, many years, users didn't have a choice. They'd be served ads for things that might be wildly irrelevant based on one errant search, or when shopping for a niche gift for a friend.

The difference now is that they're opening up topics to users. It's win-win-win: Users don't see irrelevant ads, Google doesn't serve up ads that users won't click (thus driving down the value), and advertisers pay less for useless impressions and are more likely to reach users interested in their products.

Make no mistake... Google isn't doing this out of the goodness of their hearts. It only makes their ad-based business model more efficient and valuable.

If the word "ads" makes you turn red as your blood boils like most of Lemmy, I can't help you. But if it weren't for ads, we'd still be paying for Netscape.