Washington Post:
If you have an Android phone, that device may log your location and velocity data. If you have a YouTube account, Google knows not only what videos you upload, but which you watch, too. There’s Google Maps. Google Play. Google Voice, if you use it to transcribe your missed calls. Between Google Contacts and Chat, the site has a pretty good idea who you’re friends with.
And while browsing data is aggregated differently than information from Google services, if you visit sites running Google Ads or Google Analytics software, Google also generally knows what you look at and what you click. According to one report from UC Berkeley’s School of Information, Google can track user behavior on 88 percent of all Internet domains.
Google is in a position of tremendous trust and responsibility. Not sure I can think of any other company that comes close. Facebook? Not quite the same thing. Facebook doesn’t bottleneck as much activity as Google does, in part because Facebook is a specific solution, not a generic solution like Google. As an example, Google handles a tremendous amount of email. Facebook generates email, but does not store it, and much of Facebook’s email traffic travels over Google’s servers.
Facebook is not just a specific solution. It has login or share buttons all across the internet, typically comprising 500k+ of javascript to track what users are doing on each website where they appear.
The data it collects in doing so is, I imagine, every bit as massive as what Google collects.
Just changed Search provider on my iPhone and Yosemite to Bing. Not that Microsoft doesn’t track me but I have very little to interact with MS, so one less thing GG can track me from now on.
Try StartPage.
“Startpage offers you Web search results from Google in complete privacy!
When you search with Startpage, we remove all identifying information from your query and submit it anonymously to Google ourselves. We get the results and return them to you in total privacy.
Your IP address is never recorded, your visit is not logged, and no tracking cookies are placed on your browser. When it comes to protecting your privacy, Startpage runs the tightest ship on the Internet. Our outstanding privacy policy and thoughtful engineering give you great search results in total anonymity.”
Google’s core business is to feed as much data as possible into their vast learning engines. Their initial mission was “to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful…”. And they succeeded spectacularly making the web, books, and even images searchable. And we loved them for it. However they ran out of stuff to index.
So they turned their attention to people and their activities. And once again they succeeded spectacularly. That is why they spend so much time fighting Apple and Facebook – and any other platform which restricts their access to data.
I have been using DuckDuckGo web search for years now. In Safari and also as an app on iOS. Works fine, doesn’t track you, and there’s far less spam than Google.
Wrong.
“Google’s core business” is delivering advertisements to eyeballs. Their customers are their advertises. You are Google’s product.
Serving precisely-targeted ads generates more revenue from advertisers than serving generic ads. And how does Google get that precision? How can they spam us with the best, most relevant ads? By learning everything they can about each and every one of us. By scanning all of our emails, by spying on us as we search and browse, by prying as far as possible into our lives. Every day.
That’s the real reason why Google “feed(s) as much data as possible into their vast learning engines.” To make all of us into better products, for the sole purpose of generating higher revenue from Google’s advertisers.
The end result?
97% of Google’s revenue comes from ads.
Period.
I’ve never had a problem with anything Google does, they offer so many “free” services that I don’t mind them advertising to me. The good part most of the time is the advertisements are things I actually would want to see or things I probably would buy.
Imagine if television only delivered ads you wanted to see; like when watching football if I only seen pizza and beer commercials.. oh wait! 🙁
I think most people share your sentiments. I personally have no problem with Google using my usage information to tailor adds. But, there is more to the issue than just advertising, for instance, how do you feel about Google selling you personal information or the possibility of the information being stolen. Your search history and email contents are a very personal thing.
That is true, but Google does a great job at securing my personal data. I would say they are the best at security, not saying that it can’t happen but I trust Google when it comes to security much more than I do Apple, Microsoft, Facebook and Twitter.
I have no doubt that Google has amazing encryption that would be nearly impossible to hack, but an insider could bypass all of that. NSA’s Snowden is a perfect example and they put a lot more effort into vetting their people and securing their systems than Google. Also, how do you feel about Google selling the data to other companies that you may not trust as much.
“I trust Google when it comes to security much more than I do Apple, Microsoft, Facebook and Twitter.” – The problem I have with this statement is that Apple and Microsoft have business models with major privacy advantages. They don’t need to read your email, store your text messages, search history, etc. Very little is collected, so there is very little that can be stolen.