Say hello to 2025you will be tracked.gettyUpdated on January 10 with new reports into a user location data leak with major privacy implications. An ironic spat this week in the world of big tech. Google attacked Microsoft for its long history of tricks to confuse users and limit choice, less than than three weeks after it was accused of reducing peoples choice and control over how their information is collected, in response to its new plan to digitally fingerprint users devices, not just Android and Chrome the usual targets of such criticism. That tracking is now just six weeks away.Two unrelated stories barely a fortnight apartand yet not really unrelated at all. The common theme is users as pawns, subject to the whims of the staggeringly expansive ecosystems they rely on each and every day.Google slammed Microsoft after the Windows maker was caught spoofing the Google homepage when users searched for Google on Bing.com. Windows LatestApple went to court to help Google defend its default search spot on a billion iPhones. Its not too many months ago that the iMaker released a video inspired by Hitchcocks The Birds that essentially warned those iPhone users to steer clear of Chrome.This was a clear attempt from Microsoft to make Bing look like Google for this specific search query, reported The Verge. The Google result includes a search bar, an image that looks a lot like a Google Doodle, and even some small text under the search bar just like Google does. Microsoft even automatically scrolls down the page slightly to mask its own Bing search bar that appears at the top of search results.Chrome and Google Search are not one and the same, albeit both carry privacy risks. And thats why those iPhone users are better using Google Search within Safari than Chrome, albeit that becomes much less the case if youre logged into a Google account as you do so. But Chrome doesnt play a leading role in the latest Google tracking warning that hit the headlines just before the holidays. Notwithstanding that Chrome has hogged the bulk of Googles tracking headlines in recent years, with cookies and incognito mode and its privacy sandbox playing recurring roles.The latest issue started when Google pushed out an update to its advertising ecosystem. The changes, it said, have been prompted by the broader range of surfaces on which ads are served (such as connected TVs and gaming consoles), and mean they will be less prescriptive with partners in how they target and measure ads.Fingerprinting is not just a browser issue anymore.This is digital fingerprinting across connected devices, the UKs information regulator was quick to point out. Fingerprinting involves the collection of pieces of information about a devices software or hardware, which, when combined, can uniquely identify a particular device and user... The ICOs view is that fingerprinting is not a fair means of tracking users online because it is likely to reduce peoples choice and control over how their information is collected. The change to Googles policy means that fingerprinting could now replace the functions of third-party cookies.And given the nature of these other devices and that users wont realize whats taking place, there are serious implications. Identity Week warns that organizations using Googles advertising tech can implement fingerprinting without violating Googles policies and complying with the requirements of data protection law... Fingerprinting is so hindering to privacy expectations because it relies on signals that are not easy to wipe. Even if data is permanently deleted, fingerprinting biometrics could detect and recognize your identity.Interesting parallels between the return of digital fingerprinting which is infamously difficult for a user to detect and an unprecedented new leak of user location data, which also exposes a vast array of apps collecting data from users devices. The Gravy Analytics leak highlights the sheer scale of the location data industry, another user tracking ecosystem that takes place behind the scenes, is difficult to detect, and which most users would likely disable if they could.As 404Media neatly puts it, the [Gravy Analytics] news is a crystalizing moment for the location data industry. For years, companies have harvested location information from smartphones, either through ordinary apps or the advertising ecosystem, and then built products based on that data or sold it to others. In many cases, those customers include the U.S. government... But collecting that data presents an attractive target to hackers.What I suspect will prompt users to sit up and take notice more than the scale of the leak is the number of popular apps contributing the data in the first place. Candy Crush, Tinder [and] MyFitnessPal, Wired reports, are amongst the thousands of apps hijacked to spy on your location... Some of the worlds most popular apps are likely being co-opted by rogue members of the advertising industry to harvest sensitive location data on a massive scale.There are various lists of these apps now doing the rounds suffice to say its extensive. Per Wired, it includes dating sites Tinder and Grindr; massive games such as Candy Crush, Temple Run, Subway Surfers, and Harry Potter: Puzzles & Spells; transit app Moovit; My Period Calendar & Tracker, a period-tracking app with more than 10 million downloads; popular fitness app MyFitnessPal; social network Tumblr; Yahoos email client; Microsofts 365 office app; and flight tracker Flightradar24.... religious-focused apps such as Muslim prayer and Christian Bible apps, various pregnancy trackers, and many VPN apps, which some users may download, ironically, in an attempt to protect their privacy.Users dont like being tracked behind the scenes. Thats why the Gravy leak has made headlines and its why digital fingerprinting is doing the same. And theres another new twist as reported by Reuters: Google has failed to persuade a federal judge to dismiss a privacy class action claiming it collected personal data from people's cellphones after they switched off a button to stop the tracking. This may lead to a trial in the summer. It follows Googles destruction of billions of data records last year, in the wake of a similar lawsuit relating to data collection while using Chromes incognito mode.Interesting timing nonetheless, two warnings, a legal ruling and a privacy-invasive data leak all within a couple of weeks. The risks, of course, fall to all those millions and millions of users whether on Chrome or Edge or Android or Windows or all of the above. I approached Google and Microsoft for any comments on the various angles to all this nothing yet.Digital fingerprinting begins Feb. 16; in the meantime, just keep all this in mind.