When I saw those settings I thought something was wrong. The same thing happened when I opened up Google Maps and my GMail. You’re right, though, this is gonna be a learning curve for me, and it angers me that Google is the cause of all this. If I can ever get away from all things Google I will; email, Youtube, everything, at least as much as I can.
It is not just google. They are obviously much more aggressive at doing it than others because they are the government tracking folks. But just about every site is doing it in the name of “free market advertising”. Despite the “business can never do wrong” cult there IS A LIMIT!!! This is pick-pocketing our wallets and private credentials! Pick-pocketing is a CRIME... It is THEFT not “business as usual”.
It is basically legal HACKING.
And it gets worse. There are a lot of platforms now crytojacking. Any site that makes you install an app/client to use their platform is cryptojacking your resources. I even caught Starlink installing a client that was cryptojacking my resources behind my back. It is a damned carnival full of scam stands...