Google and privacy

[mojo84]

Ever wondered how much and what information Google keeps on you. Here's how you can find out.
This should be interesting.

http://www.komando.com/downloads/270033 ... d-more/all" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[RoyGBiv]

Thanks for the tip.

[mojo84]

I haven't opened it yet but I just received a huge zip file. Looking forward to seeing just what's in it.

[jimlongley]

Google searching for me gets you so many results that are not me, that it might just serve to confuse.

[tms119]

It is kinda creepy to think how many people us google and its apps. Google search, Gmail, Google Docs, etc.

[mojo84]

It is kinda creepy to think how many people us google and its apps. Google search, Gmail, Google Docs, etc.

Yes it is. I don't think any company equals them in gathering and tracking information on those that use their services.

[PBratton]

Yeah, I was thinking, when I read the title of this post, 'There's two words that don't belong together...'

[VMI77]

Whenever you use Google you're making a contribution, however small, to the DNC. Putting money into Google's pockets helped get Obama elected.

http://www.redstate.com/2013/05/30/goog ... democrats/

I’ve written previously about how embedded Google, Inc., is with the Democratic Party and the Obamasphere in particular.

I was told by many that it was the stuff of tin-foil hats to believe that Google was in the tank for Democrats. They’re just working with clients after all! Why, Romney and Republicans could’ve just as easily worked with them! This isn’t partisan!

Well, now, this is just in from Bloomberg/Businessweek: Google Chairman Eric Schmidt, one of Obama’s biggest boosters, is bankrolling a new for-profit endeavor being run by former Obama tech staffers that will be working exclusively for Democrats, as well as some corporate clients, in future.

Not that the Republican party on the national level isn't just as bad as the democrats. Or that Google won't also support Republicans as long as they're undermining the Constitutional Republic.....but they're the enemy of those few Republicans, Libertarians, and Independents who actually believe in the principles upon which the country was founded. Google is evil, and using Google in any way that improves their bottom line facilitates evil.

[Mammoth]

Actually Google has much more information on you than what's on your Google account. They're an advertising company that makes money by tracking what you do on the web and showing you targeted ads. With online ads, the more tightly they target an audience, the more you get paid. So every scrap of data about your behavior is valuable to Google.

* Many, many sites have a script from "google-analytics.com" (happily not this one). This is a common service Google provides to website admins to gather statistics on their visitors, such as how many people accessed the site, what country they are from (can be easily found out from your IP), what site they came from (many sites put referrers in their links to transmit this information), what search keywords you used to find the page (if you found it from a search engine), what OS you run and so on. Of course, all this data passes through Google. They don't really say whether they do anything with it, but chances are they log all of it. Basically, if you go to any site using Google Analytics, they now have all the above information. Google Analytics isn't the only one, by the way - Yahoo, Microsoft, and many other companies have services like these.
* If you are logged in to your Google account, all your Google searches are logged. This includes how much time you spent looking at the search results, which results you click, even if you type something in the search box but then change your mind and delete it. They then use this to show you results they think you want to see.
* If you are not logged in, your searches are still associated with your IP. If you then, say, login to Gmail and check your emails from the same IP, Google can now easily consult their logs, see that the IP address searching for so and so terms has also logged in to this account, and deduce that you made those searches. For public computers shared by many users, the association is harder, but something like your home PC that only you use makes this trivial.
* If you use Chrome, even if you uncheck the "report statistics" options, it will phone home and tell Google what you do online, and even what you type in the address bar.
* If you have an Android phone, which uses Google's OS, it probably has Google software on it tracking where you are (it can figure this out by looking at the cell tower you are using or nearby Wi-Fi spots). Granted all phones do this.
* This is probably obvious, but they scan your all emails, Hangouts messages and so on and it to the profile they have about you.

There isn't really much you can do to see what Google has on you, since a lot of it they keep secret. The only option is to avoid using Google services as much as possible.

Besides this, user data is a hot commodity in the advertising business. Companies constantly track every single thing about you they can get away with. They then use it to show you targeted ads (these are more profitable for them), and sell these databases to each other.

[jimlongley]

Actually Google has much more information on you than what's on your Google account. They're an advertising company that makes money by tracking what you do on the web and showing you targeted ads. With online ads, the more tightly they target an audience, the more you get paid. So every scrap of data about your behavior is valuable to Google.

* Many, many sites have a script from "google-analytics.com" (happily not this one). This is a common service Google provides to website admins to gather statistics on their visitors, such as how many people accessed the site, what country they are from (can be easily found out from your IP), what site they came from (many sites put referrers in their links to transmit this information), what search keywords you used to find the page (if you found it from a search engine), what OS you run and so on. Of course, all this data passes through Google. They don't really say whether they do anything with it, but chances are they log all of it. Basically, if you go to any site using Google Analytics, they now have all the above information. Google Analytics isn't the only one, by the way - Yahoo, Microsoft, and many other companies have services like these.
* If you are logged in to your Google account, all your Google searches are logged. This includes how much time you spent looking at the search results, which results you click, even if you type something in the search box but then change your mind and delete it. They then use this to show you results they think you want to see.
* If you are not logged in, your searches are still associated with your IP. If you then, say, login to Gmail and check your emails from the same IP, Google can now easily consult their logs, see that the IP address searching for so and so terms has also logged in to this account, and deduce that you made those searches. For public computers shared by many users, the association is harder, but something like your home PC that only you use makes this trivial.
* If you use Chrome, even if you uncheck the "report statistics" options, it will phone home and tell Google what you do online, and even what you type in the address bar.
* If you have an Android phone, which uses Google's OS, it probably has Google software on it tracking where you are (it can figure this out by looking at the cell tower you are using or nearby Wi-Fi spots). Granted all phones do this.
* This is probably obvious, but they scan your all emails, Hangouts messages and so on and it to the profile they have about you.

There isn't really much you can do to see what Google has on you, since a lot of it they keep secret. The only option is to avoid using Google services as much as possible.

Besides this, user data is a hot commodity in the advertising business. Companies constantly track every single thing about you they can get away with. They then use it to show you targeted ads (these are more profitable for them), and sell these databases to each other.

We legitimately search the web at work, for items related to our jobs. A customer comes in looking for a left handed fister plate for their 3/5 inch bivalve sprocket and someone is bound to grab a random computer and do a search. Even though cookies are disabled, and there are firewalls and other security measures in place, it's kind of a kick to see what pops up in advertising spam at times.