I always wonder about these things. If you don’t click on agree, does it not collect data or does it do it surreptitiously? If I click disagree, does it still track regardless like in the meme?
By EU law they are only allowed to track you if you click agree. If you don’t click anything or disagree the shouldn’t do it (They need active consent). However the american tech giants are known for casually breaking laws since they can afford the fines.
If you click disagree they don’t install cookies on your browser which are used to track you. They only install those that are necessary to keep you logged in.
Fun fact time: Google sees every single thing you type into Chrome’s URL bar. They anonymize it, and any query or URL with less than 5 uses is filtered out. That dataset is then used across Google, from ads to spam detection to search rankings. Chrome’s URL logs help Google maintain their monopoly on search and ads, and most people are not aware that Google is collecting that data.
Switch to Firefox!
Or at least away from Chrome.+1 seriously I cannot recommend private browsers enough. https://www.zdnet.com/article/best-browser-for-privacy/
