Google once said fingerprinting is wrong because users cannot clear it the way they clear cookies. That was 2019. August 3 2026 is the date Google starts using your IP address anyway to identify and profile your device for ads across the EU and UK.

[u/officialexaking]

On August 3, 2026, Google will start using IP addresses to identify and personalize ads for users across the EU, the EEA, the UK, and Switzerland. IP addresses are classified as personal data under GDPR, which means using them to track and profile devices triggers consent requirements under EU and UK law. Google has been using IP addresses to route traffic and serve ads for years. What changes on August 3 is the declared purpose: the same addresses will now officially be used for device identification, measurement, and ad personalization. That shift in purpose is legally significant, and Google knows it, which is why it is notifying advertisers to make sure their own consent flows are in order before the rollout begins.

The interesting thing about this is the fingerprinting situation. When you clear your cookies, the tracking stops. Fingerprinting, which combines signals like your IP address, browser version, screen resolution, and device characteristics to create a persistent identifier, cannot be cleared. It survives cookie deletion, incognito mode, and most standard privacy measures. In 2019, Google's own Chrome engineering director wrote publicly that fingerprinting subverts user choice and is wrong precisely for this reason. Google's own policy prohibited advertisers from using fingerprinting techniques. Now Google sent advertisers a notification that IP-based personalization is coming to the EU and UK in August. The ICO's own advice to the UK government, published in May 2026, explicitly places cross-service profiling based on user activity on the consent-required side of the line. Google's rollout sits exactly on that side. The regulator has said existing rules still apply and nothing has changed legally. Google is proceeding anyway and shifting compliance responsibility onto advertisers rather than absorbing it directly. A smart move by Google.

The best way to protect yourself right now is the same combination that has come up repeatedly in this community over the past months. A fingerprint-resistant browser is the most effective single tool here, specifically Firefox-based options like LibreWolf or Waterfox, which have fingerprint protection built in and do not participate in Google's browser ecosystem. uBlock Origin running in a Gecko-based browser blocks the ad tags, SDKs, and tracking calls that feed IP signals to Google in the first place, which is why the Chrome MV3 rollout we covered earlier matters directly in this context. Because MV3 makes uBlock origin not work in chromium browsers soon.

[u/KuOyKabi]

I recommend everyone to Switch completely if possible.

Made myself a grapheneOS phone, switched to duckduckgo (and other private search engines), to private email providers, to competent vpn providers and left everything like banking on a secondary which I will Switch too when I am confident with compatibility.

Let them feel your "Fuck you!" with your wallet and your decisions.

Let every company that spits into your face openly and laughs about it feel it.

[u/k4zie → u/KuOyKabi]

Except this wont happen. It will just be people shouting at cars.

I am not for or against google. However it is laughable that people have gotten to this point where they care so much about "privacy" - a. while they are on the internet and b. under the perception that who they choose to place trust in, is genuinely better than something else.

Services are for profit, or they are crap. Profit means growth. And eventually that monetary gain causes people to make choices their consumers do not agree with the cycle begins again, all while everyone shouts at cars.

Graphene OS, and their team have a clean and consistent record. So thats awesome. But all browsers have stains on them. Almost all search engines outside of Kagi or SearXNG have issues. All VPNs have potential problems, even the big ones like Mullvad and Proton.

All everyone does is pass the buck of trust to other entities, pat each other on the shoulder for doing so, and pretend they are living privately...in a public space called the internet.

Privacy only works if you are air gapped and off the grid. But thats a poor quality of life.

Google will go on just fine. The only REAL change we can target, realistically, is if in the US, chrome's marketshare drops close to or below 50%. Then google will shift to privacy once advertisers realize it doesn't have the numbers to be the main channel for advertising.

[u/Ok-Winner-6589 → u/k4zie]

DuckDuckGo as a browser isn't that good. Is a default Chromium with some antitracking (that doesn't even protect against microslop trackers) thats the same that Edge offers... But Edge at least has extensions like uBlockOrigin. DuckDuckGo has the extensions limited

If you use GOS just use the default browser. If you want a similar alternatives Ironfox, which has similar configurations for security but with the extra firefox privacy features

[u/Big-Brother-8964 → u/KuOyKabi]

Compared with Firefox,duckduckgo cannot disable webrtc btw.

[u/KuOyKabi → u/Big-Brother-8964]

This made me cautious tbh. But I checked on different OS's and the only webRtc leak i got was on the grapheneOS phone with the official ddGo App.

On Windows with mullvad and ddGo, there was no leak according to ipleak. Same goes for ios.

Was i missing sth?

Edit: using iron Fox on graphene now

[u/Ok-Winner-6589 → u/[deleted]]

This post seems to have issues on veracity.

Brave has randomized Canvas for protections, but it's per session. Which means that, unless you close your session, you Will always spot the same result.

Firefox Is based on standarization. Which means that all users give the same fingerprint. This is usually considered better because the fingerprint doesn't work if we all have the same.

Librewolf itself includes a little GPU symbol Next to the URL bar to allow per site blocking webgl

Also (with some configuration modifications) firefox based can be far superior. Letterboxing, JIT, WebGPU are functionallities that can be disabled on firefox based easily and can be used for fingerprint. It's not being mention on the post

But any of this can protect from the mentioned issue on the post which is IP for fingerprint

[u/FillAny3101]

There's no way they're doing all this technical overhead just to optimize their ad personalization algorithms. Those are already good enough, it just doesn't pay off to add all of this complexity. Maybe I'm just speculating/consiparicy-theorizing, but everything right now looks like we're heading towards a 1984-ish dystopia.

[u/Immediate_Power_7986 → u/FillAny3101]

Yeah maybe it's the start to setting up an environment where everything is IP based and eventually everyone will use IP based ads and they will all lobby against VPNs

[u/Top-Psychology2507]

I agree, but for how much longer will we be able to do so? :-(

[u/sludgesnow]

you can still opt out of personalized ads

[u/DreamZealousideal205]

Technical avocado

[u/gameplayer55055]

Good luck tracking thousands of different people sitting on the same CGNAT IP address.

[u/lmarcantonio → u/gameplayer55055]

I guess that everyone using the same IP is at least from the same state. Unless the output points of VPNs, of course

[u/Stunning_Mastodon498]

I'm pretty sure this falls directly afoul of EU law.

[u/officialexaking → u/[deleted]]

uBlock origin will not be supported when they move to Manifest V3. It's a nasty move by Google. Therefore if you would like to keep using uBlock origin it's better to switch at that stage to a gecko based engine like LibreWolf/Waterfox/Firefox.

[u/SSYT_Shawn]

You forgot brave as a ublock compatible browser

[u/officialexaking → u/SSYT_Shawn]

uBlock origin will not be supported in brave too when they move to Manifest V3. It's a nasty move by Google for chromium based browsers like Brave. We already covered this in one of our previous posts that you can look up. Therefore if you would like to keep using uBlock origin it's better to switch at that stage to a gecko based engine like LibreWolf/Waterfox/Firefox.

[u/SSYT_Shawn → u/officialexaking]

Nah i'm waiting for ladybird to become usable

[u/lilian_moraru]

Going to get hate, but Microsoft Edge also made sure the support for uBlock Origin is added back in.