Google to strip unique client ID from future Google Chrome installs

Whether you were aware of it or not, Google has always tagged Chrome installs with a unique identifier. It's long been reported as a privacy-compromising feature, though as H-Online states in their post today that has never been proven. Analysts have tried to do so via packet sniffing but there's been no smoking gun to date.

Google's official word on the matter has always been that the client ID is only used to determine when a user requires updates and by the crash reporter (a feature which isn't enabled by default). Nevertheless, they've decided the identifier won't be a permanent part of future Chrome releases.

According to details published in a new data protection whitepaper, Google reports that future versions of Chrome will only require the unique ID to check for the first automatic update. Once that update has been successfully installed, the ID is removed.

Privacy-minded folks like the developers of SRWare Iron still have other concerns, of course -- like omnibar suggestions, alternate error messages, and the Chrome updater.

Tags: chrome, google, ID, privacy, tinfoil hat, TinfoilHat, unique, update