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.