Google and Privacy Concerns

We all heard the big uproar over privacy concerns as Google's now famed G-Mail service kicked in with the text ads that were targeted based on a computerized scan of your e-mails. If the claims I recently heard from a fellow citizen's "techie friends" are anything to go by, the rumor mill has gone haywire since then.

Below are some of the interesting things "people know" that Google is doing:

1. Google is now masking executable files as cookies and infiltrating your PC.

2. Google is recording ISP (Internet Service Provider) info and IP addresses from everyone who uses its services.

3. Google can build a profile of you by recording all the search queries you make.

4. Google collects sensitive information, such as saved passwords, from your browser.

Let's start by chewing on items 1 and 4 off the juicy list. If anyone can do either of the two to your browser, it's about time you switch browsers to something that has at least rock bottom security issues covered. Quite frankly, I haven't heard of a single browser on the market that would leak enough to make such invasions of privacy possible. Chances are, then, that Google isn't doing this after all. Of course, if you choose to install Google's toolbar into your browser, it can in theory access all kinds of things - but collecting passwords isn't in its feature list. The toolbar also has a clear privacy policy for everyone to see.

As for recording ISP info and IP addresses - that sounds outright scary, right? To break the news, just every single web-server on the Internet produces access logs that link your IP address with every single file you accessed from the server, time-stamped. This is standard server behavior, and is also rather clearly outlined in Google's Privacy Policy. But with privacy and scams being the theme of the day, things like this are great means for scaring the ignorant still farther away from their keyboards.

Does Google log your search queries? They could, couldn't they? Wouldn't that be the ultimate method of profiling people? Well yes, they can do that, and if you want, they'll actually do that for you. Web History is a popular service they offer: Google can log your search queries for you and profile your interests to serve you with more relevant search results. You can pause the query logging or clear your search history at any time.

Well, but shouldn't I play it safe and use something else, just in case? Well, you could use Yahoo (30.5% of the market), also in charge of Altavista, AllTheWeb and Overture. Or, you could use Microsoft's MSN search (15.5%), or the Time Warner owned AOL (9.9%), if either of the two sound less corporate and less evil to you. Did I say Yahoo's revenues on Q1 of 2005 were $1174 million?

For all of you extreme privacy freaks, the bottom line is this: with Google or without, if the big brother really wanted to nail you down, your full profile would have been filed and backed up a small forever ago. Maybe it was? You just wouldn't know! Regardless, as long as Google, or any of the popular players of the day for that matter, offers service value superseding competition, and when there are no obvious concerns in the air, then by all means Google all you like! And the advice that put me writing, coming from "real reliable techies" as they were profiled to me - makes you go "hmmm". A big, long hummmm!

Oh yes, did I mention that adding up the numeric values of the letters of "Google" (6 letters) plus five add up to 66 while multiplying them with each other makes 661500? Does that mean something? What does 1150 mean? Should you be concerned? Yes! Hide away your keyboard already, wipe off the fingerprints and the old coffee stains, bury that suspicious mouse and run to the forests, a foil hat wrapped tight around your head! They may be coming for you, just anytime now.