[__michaelg]

Upvoted, this looks more correct than what I wrote.

[hooby]

As for (3) - there's no proof either way, as you already said.

But collecting more of that data which their marketing business makes it's profits from, is likely to have a positive effect on their bottom line.

And since the change already has been live for a while in some regions, it seems likely that Google is well aware of how much impact this change has on their revenue.

You decide for yourself if money is or isn't the reason why a big corporation like Google would do something like that.

[s3p]

I think your original comment was spot on. The reply above didn't really add anything imo.