What, exactly, does Google know about us?

[dajoki]

WP
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/10952497
read entire article
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Forgot what you searched for? Google didn’t
Online giant stores users’ queries, click patterns and more


By Leslie Walker

Updated: 12:25 a.m. ET Jan. 21, 2006
The Justice Department may have done us all a big favor by issuing subpoenas to Internet search engines to find out what people are researching online.

Not because that data could help shield children from online porn, which was the government's stated goal in demanding data from Google and three other search firms.

Rather, the request -- and Google's refusal to fork over its search data -- is putting a helpful public spotlight on the vast amount of personal information being stored, parsed and who knows what else by the Web services we increasingly rely on to manage our lives.

Even though the government has demanded no personal information -- only a list of Web queries divorced from the names of those submitting them --Google is resisting partly on grounds that turning over the data might create a public perception that it would readily cough up personal factoids, if asked.

So that raises the question: What, exactly, does Google know about us?

[crikkett]

1. they know what we're looking for & what we're thinking

Aside from indexing everything we write, Google knows what we're looking for, what we're thinking, who and where we are. Google assigns ID's to users via cookies that expire in 2034. Google ties IP numbers to those UIDs. See more at http://www.scroogle.org

I think that Google is doing this public stink thing so that we'll still buy their stock and use their interface and not protest in front of their buildings when they capitulate next week.

Google is tied to the Intelligence community already.
Spooks on board at Google: http://www.google-watch.org/jobad.html

[philosophie_en_rose]

2. Is there any way to get around this?

Like not accepting google cookies? I don't use google very often and I don't care if it knows that I'm looking for obscure pictures to post on DU. However, I hate the idea of being tracked.

[comalog]

3. Yeah... There is...

What happens is when you search Google (and every other web site in the world, likely this one, too) tracks your IP address. A cookie is something saved on YOUR computer. That isn't part of the Google issue. Google saves the search, time, and IP address that can be traced back directly to your Internet access account. What can you do? There is no way to stop sites from tracking an IP address but you use a proxy to hide your IP address and make another appear. Basically, everything thing you do goes through a third party so nothing traces back to you. If you want true privacy and want to protect yourself from big brother or even identity theft, consider using this proxy that is perhaps the mot trusted:

Anonymizer 2006 -- $29.99/year
http://www.anonymizer.com

"Prevent identity theft, advanced phishing and pharming scams, secure your home computer, & wireless network."

[dajoki]

5. thanks!! n/t

[Innocent Smith]

4. perhaps the correct question is...

...what does Google not know about us?

[dajoki]

6. and who else...

doesn't know it.