The Google Spy
Thursday, October 11, 2007 Filed in: Ideas
In the age of privacy concerns, nobody likes to be
spied upon. LIke it or don't Big Brother Google is
spying on us. Do you mind?
Do you Google? The most popular of the world's internet search engines, by far, is Google. It's simple. It's free. It works. Mostly. Google is so popular and has so many millions of users each day, that they must be collecting a lot of information.
Whose information? Yours. For example, every time you search on Google, the search results page displays a number of context advertising. Google knows, within reason, who you are, where you are, and what search terms you enter into the Google search field, what you click on next, which ads you viewed and when, and which ads you clicked on.
Google is spying on you.
If you're a Gmail user, the spying is more personal. Gmail is Google's free mail service. It's simple, it's free, and it works altogether too well. Storage is nearly unlimited. So are the ads, which are context sensitive to the message in your email. Every time you read your Gmail, Google reads your email, too, and gives your relevant advertising to match.
Google collects all that information for a reason. They use it. Google also owns the Double-Click advertising network, so it's likely that every web page you view has advertising that comes from, you guessed it, Google. Google knows which sites you visit, which you don't, and that information can be shared with advertisers trying to sell you more goods and services.
The Google spy is nearly perfect. Free is a strong motivator for most of us not to bother with Google's information gathering, for whatever the purpose. Should we be concerned about Google's purpose? Would you be concerned about someone who followed your every move, every day, every hour, and had unlimited access to your home?
That's Google.
Google is spying on all of us. To what end? Profits. Google sells access to information for advertisers. Does Google know who we are by name? Not really, so a measure of anonymity exists. The information created and tracked is so enormous and so worthy to advertisers that it is just a matter of time before Google knows as much about us as we know about ourselves.
Then it will be too late.
Do you Google? The most popular of the world's internet search engines, by far, is Google. It's simple. It's free. It works. Mostly. Google is so popular and has so many millions of users each day, that they must be collecting a lot of information.
Whose information? Yours. For example, every time you search on Google, the search results page displays a number of context advertising. Google knows, within reason, who you are, where you are, and what search terms you enter into the Google search field, what you click on next, which ads you viewed and when, and which ads you clicked on.
Google is spying on you.
If you're a Gmail user, the spying is more personal. Gmail is Google's free mail service. It's simple, it's free, and it works altogether too well. Storage is nearly unlimited. So are the ads, which are context sensitive to the message in your email. Every time you read your Gmail, Google reads your email, too, and gives your relevant advertising to match.
Google collects all that information for a reason. They use it. Google also owns the Double-Click advertising network, so it's likely that every web page you view has advertising that comes from, you guessed it, Google. Google knows which sites you visit, which you don't, and that information can be shared with advertisers trying to sell you more goods and services.
The Google spy is nearly perfect. Free is a strong motivator for most of us not to bother with Google's information gathering, for whatever the purpose. Should we be concerned about Google's purpose? Would you be concerned about someone who followed your every move, every day, every hour, and had unlimited access to your home?
That's Google.
Google is spying on all of us. To what end? Profits. Google sells access to information for advertisers. Does Google know who we are by name? Not really, so a measure of anonymity exists. The information created and tracked is so enormous and so worthy to advertisers that it is just a matter of time before Google knows as much about us as we know about ourselves.
Then it will be too late.
