Well, I’m not trying to start a flame war, we all love big-G even if they make us do “strange” things to get our websites listed in their search engine, but…
Did you ever consider how much power Google really has? Well, they say information is power, so … Here’s a glimpse of the enormous amount of information that big-G has about YOU, and who you really are (hint: even your spouse may not know some of these things ).
- Everything you search for. Well d’oh.
- Which websites you clicked on from the search results.
- How fast you read — yes, they track how long you stayed on the search results page.
- What language you read, what city you’re in, which ISP you use, who is your employer (if you use the same computer from work and home).
- All the webpages you visit. They know this in two ways. First of all, if you visit one site with adsense on it, and then visit another site with adsense on it, Google knows you’re the same person. Second, if you have Google Toolbar installed and you enabled PR display, Google knows about *every* page you visit.
- All the alerts you set, Google knows about, and can infer things about you like what topics and keywords you are interested in.
- If you read Google News, then Google knows about that, and what news items you read.
- If you watch videos on YouTube, Google knows your taste in videos. Do you like young cheerleaders? Google knows that. Your spouse may not know that
- If you visit any blogs on blogspot, Google knows. You like to read about English soccer teams? Google knows.
- If you have an adwords or adsense account, Google knows your financial information.
- If you use gmail, Google knows every word you wrote in email, to whom, which messages you read and when, and who you get email from — even if the email is supposedly private.
- If you use Google Docs, every document you store in there is saved by Google and cannot be easily deleted — they have backups.
- If you use Google Calendar, then Google knows where you are and when, and whom you are meeting, and the subject of every meeting you record in your calendar.
- If you have a Google Webmaster account, you are giving Google information about every website you put in there. Google can infer information about your business, personal interests, and your skills as a webmaster.
- Recently Google started forcing people to verify gmail accounts through SMS. Now Google correlates the owner of a gmail account with a cell phone number.
And I’ll skip the more alarming ways in which Google can know stuff about you: if you use Google Health, you give Google information that can be valuable for insurance purposes. If you use Google Chrome (their browser) you are an open book for Google.
OK if you’ve made it thus far into my post, I’ll ask the question that’s on my mind after all of the above:
Does Google have too much power, in your opinion?
Your comments and opinions are very very welcome!
- After the dot-com bust, Google bought up a lot of dark fiber in the US. Its a good chance that some of your net traffic goes over Google-owned networks..
- Google offers free wifi in several cities, e.g. Mountain View in California. Hmmm… so they know everything you looked at on your computer, every IM you sent to any of your acquaintances, and every illegal download you did during the time you were on their “free” wifi.
- Do you use gtalk? Again, Google knows every word you wrote to all of your contacts.
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