From August 3, 2026, Google will use IP addresses from UK, EEA and Switzerland users for ad measurement and personalization. It lands as the ICO weighs new consent rules, and years after Google itself called using such signals to identify devices "wrong."
Ax Sharma is a Security Researcher and Journalist at BleepingComputer. He focuses on malware analyses, cybercrime investigations, and open source software security, with a keen interest in topics such as cyber attacks, data breaches, and phishing. Ax is frequently featured in leading media outlets including WIRED, TechCrunch, and CSO Online, and is an active member of the OWASP Foundation and the British Association of Journalists.
















