Is it fair to assume this is used for fingerprinting/tracking users?
> So, Google Chrome gives all *.google.com sites full access to system / tab CPU usage, GPU usage, and memory usage. It also gives access to detailed processor information, and provides a logging backchannel.
Those things can absolutely be used to "improve" fingerprinting. I don't think it's fair to assume it's being used for that though, without any further evidence. But it certainly could be used for it.
Anyone have any further context? As it stands right now, it's just a random claim without any proof what so ever? There is link in another comment, but how is that related to the tweet?
Maybe in this situation we should distinguish "fair" vs. "probable".
I'd guess it's improbable that Google is trying to use this for fingerprinting.
But if we've previously found them with their hand in the cookie jar, then maybe it's fair to treat them as guilty until proven innocent?
I would not be surprised if there are cases where this would let them track users they otherwise couldn't. Like someone running two isolated Chrome instances with separate network connections but on the same PC.