When you delete data in Chrome, data from Google.com and Youtube.com will not be deleted. According to the company, it is a mistake.
Developer Jeff Johnson noted that when you delete all your data in the Chrome browser settings, the software doesn’t quite do that for two domains of its own.
Cookies are deleted, but data remains so that you remain identifiable. This means that not only Google but possibly also advertising partners of Google can identify you, even if you explicitly indicate that this was not allowed.
Johnson was able to discover a way to still stop it: by designating Google and Youtube in the settings as sites that should never use cookies. In that case, nothing will be saved.
The Register contacted Google. There, the company says it is aware of the problem but sounds like it is a programming bug that will be resolved in the next few days.
We must nuance the fact that Google often makes such mistakes. For example, The Register recalls that Google has also continued to do location tracking through their own apps, even though a user had explicitly turned it off for all apps.
The real option for that was under another setting that didn’t mention the word ‘location’.
A few years ago, with the first versions of Google Street View, the company also accidentally managed not only to take photos but also to map WiFi networks everywhere and intercept data. A strange act to perform accidentally.
Although we must add that Google itself made the error known at the time, even though it meant hefty privacy fines in the years that followed.
