Today while searching/googling some info in my notebook, I saw an
apparently innocent link in Google, in the upper left corner near my
account name, there was a "Search History" link, when I clicked it, all
my fears came true...
They logged all my searchs, I could see all the things I searched, at
what times I searched them, they even show you a graphic with the most
active hours of the day!! If I go to the groups section, I can see
which groups I've been reading... its clear that they log everything...
If you have a Gmail account (as I do), you can see that in the right
border, Google inserts ads relating with the message you are viewing,
it even extracts addresses and links them with maps, I'm sure it will
log that also. If your postman rode your letters and showed you
advertisements about that... what would you do? And if your postman
also rode your agenda?.
Even more, what happens to AdSense, it is everywhere, imagine that once
Google knows your interests (you like MS better than Java, because you
search more using the word "C#"), it shows YOU the proper ads, based on
your google profile, it will be fine for someone, but in addition to
targeting you with the proper ads, it traks all your movements in the
net. How many sites have AdSense banners? All the baners reside in
Google servers and they create an IFRAME pointing to the google domain,
so they can track you.
Even more, Google is buying lots of companies to offer free WLAN
service in the US, are you sure it will be free? It might be free of
charge, but I could cost your privacy.
Let's put on the evil side:
Imagine a "MegaCorp" that knows what are your interests, what you look
at what hours, reads your mail, knows your agenda, can track you on the
net.
Imagine Google..
I will not write about Google Print... imagine thousands of books
accesible everywhere, I don't use the encyclopedia since I discovered
internet, imagine a MegaCorp controlling all the books, remember 1984?
The Party can rewrite history, we'll you can edit Wikipedia now, or you
can censor in China...
Enrique Blanco
www.eblanco.com
