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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 says you can opt in for this. They suggest other great ideas to opt in for:
Politics is the art of looking for trouble, finding it everywhere, diagnosing it incorrectly and applying the wrong fix.
I've been suspicious of Google's "do no evil" motto from day one, but my suspicions were confirmed when it was announced that Google Mail would be storing your emails ad-infinitum even if you deleted them. It is quite clear and obvious (and it has been for a long time) that Google is in the datamining business, the targeted advertisement part of which is only the tip of the iceberg. Anybody who's surprised by this announcement has been living in a cave...
"A door is what a dog is perpetually on the wrong side of" - Ogden Nash
There are far worse threats to privacy than Google. Watch out for continued government laws that require ISPs of all flavors to maintain data for long periods of time, and to turn it over to law enforcement for less and less stringent requirements. If you are worried about your privacy, don't sign up for the stupid service. Rotate your search engines. Use random Wi-Fi hotspots. If people want their privacy protected, they need to take responsibility for it. You reduce your privacy, and you get free services and make some services easier to use. Most people are ok with that. Whether its because they don't care about their privacy or they are stupid doesn't really matter. They made a choice, they don't need advocates fighting to put the cat back in the bag. They most certainly don't need corporations looking out for their privacy interests, unless its a selling point. Businesses provide services and make money. They don't take care of you. Take responsibility for yourself.
http://bgcommonsense.blogspot.com
The privacy advocates arnt worried about themselves. They're making a scene because they want to make sure people who do 'volunteer' know what they might be signing away.
Some snippets FTA: -
"most Google users don't know that their search queries can be tied to them"
"When Google users were asked whether they believed that the company captured data that could be used to identify them, 77% said no."
Why can't I get the same storage service Alberto Gonzolez gets at the RNC?
because the NSA are not very good at giving back the hardware to the company from which they subpoenaed it.
Depending on how you look at it, kinda useful, but nonetheless creepy.
Almost thirty years, back in the Apple ][ days, ago a friend of mine was playing a text adventure game (I forget which one). So, after he played the thing for a while, it asked him a question using his first name. He got all freaked out, "How did it know my name?!!"
I told him "Because when you started the game it asked you for it."
"Oh."
The higher the technology, the sharper that two-edged sword.
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.
Visit http://www.crunzh.com/ for free software. Mac/Lin/Win
For the paranoids I'd recommend the CustomizeGoogle firefox extension - among other things (like removing those pesky ads) it can reduce the ability for Google to track what you are doing.
How is this different from the Search tool in Gnome called "Beagle". Sure I realize Beagle is stored locally on "your" hardware, but remember when you get in trouble there is no more "your". A raid at your residence, or a court order to google / your isp gets you in the same place at the end if you are indeed "evil". In the US the SS is always in power ladies and gents. If your some kind of hacker of some sort where you need to protect yourself and privacy because you are engaging in illegal activities on the net, you have got major problems to begin with. If your connected to some sort of maffia, you have got major problems to begin with as well.
It IS 1984 in all respects of the book and film. You realize the net tracks everything and knows everything about everyone. Unless your living up in Montana, working at the local grocery store getting paid in cash off the books (no credit card, no phone, no electricity etc...) you have NO PRIVACY already.
Good luck on ranting about teh Google, they are simply making it easier for you to research your search history on the net.
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.
Because some of us use more than one computer. Like on my desktop I use Epiphany for regular stuff and Firefox when I need to do web dev stuff. Then I have my Mac, which is Safari and Firefox (same rule, spend most of my time in Safari since I go to multiple networks). Then when I go to work I (funnily enough) work on items that are personally interesting (I love my job) so sometimes what I search at home is relevant at work and vice versa, some times what I research at work is relevant to things I want to play with at home. At work I use Firefox (usually on a Windows box and IE isn't really a web browser) and sometimes its useful when I search for something ages ago to see the date and time for the ones I went to long after its disappeared from my search history. As you can probably figure out, I've used it for months now and I don't have any issues with it. I use my home del'icio'us account as well at work, to be honest for the same reason (plus it makes my bookmarks more portable as well).
I always wondered where this setting was...
Its an awesome feature, by looking at the history its obvious what content I researching and what content I am interested in on a daily basis for work and play. I cannot wait until the next step where it can use this data to refine my actual searching using this, my gmail, and bookmarks ... or maybe a personalized 'news' portal, effectively like a digg.
I am glad Google has the balls to be the one who is honest about having it and bold enough to display a tool for it.
members are seeing something, your seeing an ad
When you're really worried about tracking from google, why not use scroogle scraper?: http://www.scroogle.org/cgi-bin/scraper.htm Mark
Yeah, it's going to be the videos you uploaded to YouTube (remember those videos?) That'll get you hosed....
Faster! Faster! Faster would be better!
...Before getting all pissed off about privacy violation? Google has always logged your web history, the only thing really new about this is the fact that you can view it all from one page and, more importantly, you can choose to delete your entire history and pause it indefinitely. Explain to me how adding this is a bad thing.
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.
Its all the 13 year olds searching for porn that don't want their parents to find out.
There are probably half a dozen institutions collecting this kind of data about you: your ISP, a couple of federal and state agencies, several advertising networks, etc. At least Google is open about it and you can have a look at the data.
Another reason to get the TrackMeNot Firefox extension, which performs random Google queries constantly in the background. It frustrates attempts at identifying a user through search term frequency analysis.
heres an easy to use one.
http://www.mysecureisp.com/