The Background Telemetry
Google Chrome collects a significant amount of telemetry data to help engineers identify bugs, monitor performance, and prioritize new features. One of the main avenues for this data collection is a setting called “Help improve Chrome’s features and performance.” When this is enabled, Chrome silently sends usage statistics, crash reports, and diagnostic data regarding your browsing habits directly to Google’s servers.
While Google states this data is anonymized and used strictly for development purposes, many users are uncomfortable with their browser constantly phoning home with metrics about which settings they use, how much memory their tabs consume, or how frequently they experience crashes. If you prioritize maximum privacy and want to reduce unnecessary background network requests, you can opt out of this telemetry collection entirely.
How to Disable Chrome Telemetry Collection
You can turn off this data sharing in Chrome’s “Sync and Google services” settings.
- Open Google Chrome.
- Click the three vertical dots (Menu button) in the top-right corner of the window.
- Select Settings from the dropdown menu.
- In the left-hand sidebar, click on You and Google.
- In the main pane, click on the section labelled Sync and Google services.
- Scroll down the list until you find the option labelled Help improve Chrome’s features and performance (or “Automatically send usage statistics and crash reports to Google”).
- Toggle the switch to the Off position.
Chrome will immediately stop packaging and transmitting your usage statistics and crash data to Google. This simple toggle provides a slight boost to your privacy without impacting any actual browsing features or functionality.