Google: Is this company any different from the next?

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shnaek

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I have always wondered why GOOGLE was valued so highly on the stock exchange. But a couple of things I read recently might shed some light on it.

Firstly, 77% of Google users don't know it records personal data. Apparently Google maintains a lifetime cookie that records the user's IP address and recently it has begun to integrate services which record the user's personal search history, email, shopping habits, and social contacts. This is also integrated with gmail. All of this provides GOOGLE with a lot of very saleable information on you and I.

And for those who think GOOGLE is a friendly company we have the announcement today that Google will offer a censored version of its search engine in China which will remove results on "sensitive" topics eg. human rights, Tibet etc...

Is any company any different from the next?
 
Re: Google

I still use Google for all sorts of things, but am aware of the issues you raise — I wouldn't plan a terrorist attack on it, for example...;)

There used to be a website called [broken link removed] , but it seems to have been ...'suppressed'? :confused:
 
Re: Google

shnaek said:
Apparently Google maintains a lifetime cookie that records the user's IP address
Click to expand...
So what? So do lots of other sites. And one can always delete cookies and or move to another IP address (this will probably happen automatically even on broadband when the IP address is reallocated) if you're the paranoid type.
and recently it has begun to integrate services which record the user's personal search history, email, shopping habits, and social contacts. This is also integrated with gmail. All of this provides GOOGLE with a lot of very saleable information on you and I.
Click to expand...
So use a different search engine, webmail provider etc.
And for those who think GOOGLE is a friendly company we have the announcement today that Google will offer a censored version of its search engine in China which will remove results on "sensitive" topics eg. human rights, Tibet etc...
Click to expand...
Doesn't France ban the likes of eBay from serving up auctions in Nazi memorabilia for example? A few years ago we probably would have banned information on abortion if we were able. I don't agree with the Chinese policies myself but they are hardly unique and Google are hardly unique in complying with specific national rules.
 
shnaek said:
And for those who think GOOGLE is a friendly company we have the announcement today that Google will offer a censored version of its search engine in China which will remove results on "sensitive" topics eg. human rights, Tibet etc...

Is any company any different from the next?
Click to expand...

Well Page and Brin as motivated as they are, are hardly going to take on the Chinese government! The issue of censorship lies with the Chinese Govt. and all foreign businesses must abide by their laws for obvious reasons.


shnaek said:
Firstly, 77% of Google users don't know it records personal data. Apparently Google maintains a lifetime cookie that records the user's IP address and recently it has begun to integrate services which record the user's personal search history, email, shopping habits, and social contacts. This is also integrated with gmail. All of this provides GOOGLE with a lot of very saleable information on you and I.
Click to expand...

So what! Your ip address is recorded more times than you know. Although it posed an intereting scenario on the money program last week: What if someone was accused of covering up a murder, could the police retain searches done by the accused, like "How to dispose of ...." :) or "where to buy Lime" :)
 
rpmacmurphy said:
Although it posed an intereting scenario on the money program last week: What if someone was accused of covering up a murder, could the police retain searches done by the accused, like "How to dispose of ...." :) or "where to buy Lime" :)
Click to expand...

Already being done in the US. [broken link removed]

"Petrick used Google to search the Internet for references to "body decomposition," "rigor mortis," "neck" and "break" in the days before and after he murdered his wife, Janine Sutphen, then dumped her body in a lake, said Durham County assistant prosecutor Mitchell Garrell.
By "Googling" his wife's murder, Petrick was inadvertently supporting the prosecutor's time line of events."
 
ronan_d_john said:
Already being done in the US. [broken link removed]

"Petrick used Google to search the Internet for references to "body decomposition," "rigor mortis," "neck" and "break" in the days before and after he murdered his wife, Janine Sutphen, then dumped her body in a lake, said Durham County assistant prosecutor Mitchell Garrell.
By "Googling" his wife's murder, Petrick was inadvertently supporting the prosecutor's time line of events."
Click to expand...
Several years ago a man was convicted of the murder of his wife out Blanchardstown way. During the investigation the Gardaí checked his internet usage activity to come up with circumstantial evidence that he had researched forensic identification using DNA before volunteering to give a sample assuming that he was safe due to the time that had passed since the killing. He was identified through this process due to the victim's body having lain in sub zero temperatures for several days thus preserving the DNA longer than normal!
 
ClubMan said:
Several years ago a man was convicted of the murder of his wife out Blanchardstown way. During the investigation the Gardaí checked his internet usage activity to come up with circumstantial evidence that he had researched forensic identification using DNA before volunteering to give a sample assuming that he was safe due to the time that had passed since the killing. He was identified through this process due to the victim's body having lain in sub zero temperatures for several days thus preserving the DNA longer than normal!
Click to expand...
This isn't just a search engine issue - Regardless of what records Google keeps, your ISP is tracking your web-usage anyway. See today's papers for details of the court order forcing the major ISP's to identify music downloaders that the record companies have tracked down.

BTW, in the case of Marilyn Rynn's murder, she was not killed by her partner.
 
Unless the ISP is transparently proxying web requests they will not have detailed logs of what web pages users are looking at. Some smaller ISPs do this to reduce costs. With a large decentralised network transparently proxying is too expensive to implement without some other business driver. It's better for the ISP to just let users browse without intercepting connections. That said service control equipment (e.g. Caspian Networks, Ellacoya) can be used (at some expense/not a slam dunk business case) to throttle back peer to peer traffic for example.

Web site operators usually keep detailed logs of visitor IP addresses to their own sites. The records that all ISPs have is the authentication server logs with the users IP addresses linked to physical info like a phone/DSL line. These time-stamped logs can be matched up with the 3rd party logs collected by the record companies to provide supporting evidence in a case.
 
Compromised privacy is, and probably always will be, one of the main disadvantages of the internet as opposed to other communications media.

Use at your own risk. If you want to google "the perfect crime," don't murder anyone (or vice versa).

If you ask me Google should have told China to eff off. But it's a large marketplace and they need the eyeballs. The restrictions will probably be easily circumvented anyway.
 
shnaek said:
Apparently Google maintains a lifetime cookie that records the user's IP address and recently it has begun to integrate services which record the user's personal search history,
Click to expand...

My google records every search I have done through the google website when I log on

Is there possible to erase this list as I was thhinking of giving the old computer to charity but didn't want to go wiping the machine to erase all personal info off it
I have used crapcleaner but it doesn't seem to clear it

stuart
 
I know If you belong to any Yahoo Groups - they use "Web Beacons" to track every Group user. I assume Google is the same. It's similar to cookies, but allows Yahoo, for example, to record every website and every group you visit, even when you're not connected to Yahoo.

To unset this for Yahoo:

Look at their updated privacy statement at
http://privacy.yahoo.com/privacy

About half-way down the page, in the section on cookies, you will
see a link that says WEB BEACONS.

Click on the phrase "Web Beacons." On the page that opens, find a
paragraph entitled "Outside the Yahoo Network."

In that section find a little "Click Here to Opt Out" link that will
let you "opt-out" of their snooping. Be careful! NOT to click on the
next button shown.

It is an "Opt Back In" button that, if clicked, will UNDO the opt-out.

Note that Yahoo's invasion of your privacy - and your ability to opt- out of it - is not user-specific. It is MACHINE specific so you need to do this on your home computer and work computer etc. You also need to do it per browser (if you use IE and mozilla for example).

Im not sure where Google have their web beacon setting, but Im sure youll find it under their privacy policy.
 
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