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Google's Data-Storage Fuels Privacy Fears
taoman1 writes "Facing worries about its tracking Web surfers' every move, Google Inc. is now offering a feature to track Web surfers' every move.
Its free Web History service is strictly voluntary — Google users can sign up to have the Internet giant keep detailed records of every website they visit so they can easily find them again later.
Web History's quiet debut this week came as privacy advocates continued to raise alarms about the prospect of Google combining its collection of information on individuals with that of DoubleClick Inc. Google has agreed to acquire the New York-based company, which distributes Web ads and tracks where the majority of people go on the Internet, for $3.1 billion."
Google is Evil!
I've got 5 GMail accounts, including this one, that I use for the sole purpose of spam catching. If Google wants to archive all my spam, great. I check the accounts on the order of once or twice a month and have yet to see their spam filter work efficiently.
Politics is the art of looking for trouble, finding it everywhere, diagnosing it incorrectly and applying the wrong fix.
The search? Various hot women by their name. I did a search once for pics of and it came up with 3-4 pages of results, and only one or two pictures of interest.
Skip forward several months (I haven't deleted the searching history) and I do another search for Eva Longoria I think it was, and on the first page was the --entirely unrelated-- picture of that other woman I had searched for earlier. I've seen this happen on two different occassions before when searching under the same category. Very interesting, it's like they programmed it to know when you were searching for a hot celebrity and to insert previous pages you had visited under the same category in that search. Depending on how you look at it, kinda useful, but nonetheless creepy.
Ummm where does this come from? I cant seem to locate any statements to support this and the gmail TOS seem to indicate that the email is deleted permanently. So please backup your statements and don't spred rumors.
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Key DoubleClick assets from a recent post we did:
US Patent 7039599 - Automatic Placement of Advertising
Highlight: Claim 1. "A method for advertisement selection, comprising: (a) receiving from an advertiser Web site feedback representing user transactions at the advertiser Web site, the user transactions resulting from user response to at least one of a plurality of direct advertisements; (b) receiving a request to display a direct advertisement to a user; and (c) selecting, in response to the request, one of the plurality of direct advertisements for display based at least in part upon the advertiser feedback."
Analysis: This patent has a priority back to 1997 and allows for advertiser feedback from users on a website. Given Google's move into CPA, this patent would clearly provide added leverage to allow more data to flow between the advertiser and Google's system to optimize which ads should be displayed at a publisher.
US Patent 7085682 - Analyzing Website Activity
Highlight: A large number of independent claims covering the tracking and reporting of user activities to provide analysis of event level detail, which includes the addition of the retaining details of users' adding products to shopping carts, and repeat usage of a client site.
Analysis: In addition to the above, Google's analysis and reporting features for a tool like Analytics for a CPA advertiser become even more robust allowing for unique visitor tracking and loyalty. A robust addition to Google Analytics to be sure.
US Patent 5948061 - Delivering, Targeting and Measuring Online Ads
Highlight: What all consumer privacy folks have feared for the last 12 years. The tracking of user specific information and the performance and ongoing management of ad delivery based on user information.
Analysis: Whether we like it or not, Google retains a lot of information about our searches connected to our profiles. This technology does what the original vision of DoubleClick was built on: user-level targeted ads.
This announcement was easy to see coming.
Faulty logic. By that reasoning, Australia is full of criminals, because that's how it was years ago when the British Empire dumped them there. When the United States and it's manifest destiny started moving out to absorb the 'Wild West,' that was just the beginning of the end for civilization, because you have to average the levels of civilization, rather than accept that the acquirer will adjust the acquiree to be more like itself. What I see from this deal is a probable decrease in the number of flashing banner ads I see when I'm browsing on a less filtered machine.
I see your informative link, and raise you a pithy comment.