Does Using Google Toolbar Give Google Information That Will Give You A Site Penalty?

I recently received this email:

Peter,

I read a recent thread of yours.  You seem extremely well-informed and I was wondering if you could be so kind to answer this quick question as I don't know where to turn for an answer.

I am updating my site, so I check my SERPs for my key words on a daily basis, and frequently go to the various pages on my website. So between these two activities, we are talking about maybe 50-100 clicks per day that are related to my website [...]. I really like the google toolbar (primarily to have access to my google bookmarks). However, I will dismantle it if it is potentially detrimental to my SERP’s if Google is tracking me and thinking that I am artificially trying to inflate my SERP’s.  Should I get rid of the google toolbar just to be totally safe or is this unfounded?

Thanks a million Peter,

Garrett 
 

Here's my answer:

Hi Garrett,

You've done a good job with your site.  You don't need to be too concerned about having the toolbar installed for the reason you mention, as google would not intentionally risk placing a penalty on sites for such a normal activity pattern. 

However, if the nagging paranoia doesn't go away, you could try either of these two things that would reduce the amount of data sent to google, eliminating information on your page-visits:

1. Turn off the page-rank-checker and go through all preferences on your google toolbar to indicate that you do not want information sent to google.

(or) 2. Remove the google toolbar; use only the firefox browser, and install the plugin GBookmarks which will allow you to access Google Bookmarks without any of the remaining toolbar-like functionality.

Peter