Picasa Web is the same but as it’s run by Google that isn’t surprising.
This does bother me, my job sometimes involves dealing with identity theft and I see this tracking as aiding those who commit it.
As Picasa Web uses facial recognition to track people my little game has been to post photos of friends on picasa web with plausible but obviously ficticious names.
I hope the informaiton cmmissioner comes down against Google but even if she does they won’t stop, just be more covert about it.