Verizon is now doing this. If you opt out, they add new categories of tracking and then opt you back in:

> Custom Experience is a rebrand/spinoff of Verizon Selects, which customers were automatically enrolled into when they used the Verizon Up rewards program. Verizon Selects is being rebranded Custom Experience Plus (and anyone who was previously a member of Verizon Selects automatically gets moved to the new Plus program) and the standard Custom Experience program is being branched off of it, which allows the company to track many of its customers’ data use who do not actively opt-out.

Google's move feels similar. At least do a prompt of the user if you think they would want to opt in. Don't just opt them in automatically on your own.

If enough users feel bothered by this i hope Google reconsiders.

Don't ever change a users opt-out preference, instead give them information so they can decide on their own.

But Google knows very well what happens if they do this - almost nobody will opt-in.

There really should be more personal culpability, at least on the exec team and board of directors, for things like this.

I also hope Google gets sued in Europe over this. I live in the US and work for a European company and I'm reasonably sure they're going to be super pissed off about this.

Is it possible to sue executives and project managers involved in this decision directly in civil court? I imagine quite a few have juicy enough salaries that it would be nice to take a bite at them.

The entire point of corporations is to shield liability from the people inside the corporation from civil damages.

A. Google a multi-billion dollar company does things that impact (billions?) of paying users without caring about consequences.

or

B. All those things were considered and in the end the executives though it was worth the backlash and the risk of paying a fine.