Regarding the guy saying he's shocked they would go that far.

When it comes to tracking you, big tech is doing all of the things you can think of, and also plenty of shit you haven't thought of yet. (as demonstrated here)

Being sneaky is what big G is all about. For example go do a search there right now and right-click on a result, copy it to the clipboard and notice that what you get isn't the actual link, it's a link that has been wrapped/encased in a manor that lets them know which result you click on.