Google products use a process called Google Update to periodically check for updates. This process sends information, such as version number, language, operating system, and other installation or update-related details, back to Google servers. Google Installer is a program which runs in the background of Windows and automatically starts up when your PC boots. It checks for software udpates and automatically downloads and installs them if found.

“To make sure that you're protected by the latest security updates, Google Chrome automatically updates whenever it detects that a new version of the browser is available. The update process happens in the background and doesn't require any action on your part. Google Chrome uses Google Update to keep you up to date with the latest and most secure version of Chrome. In order to provide greater transparency and to make the technology available to other applications, the Google Update technology is open source. Google Update periodically sends a non-unique four-letter tag to Google which contains information about how you obtained Google Chrome. This tag is not personally identifiable, does not encode any information about when you obtained Google Chrome, and is shared with everyone who obtained Google Chrome the same way. Google Update also sends other information that helps us understand how many people are using Chrome and how often they use it.”

Google provides search and advertising services, which together aim to organize and monetize the world’s information. In addition to its dominant search engine, More...