So what exactly do Google and their friends know about their users?
If you use Gmail, Google knows who you contact, what you say to those people, how often you speak to them, which products/services you use that send you emails, which marketing/mailing lists you are on, and what your interests are. Examples like this are your Facebook account, what people write on your wall, etc.
If you use Google Calendar, or receive information about events through your email, Google knows what locations/events you frequent and with whom you do so as well as the locations of those events. This can easily be used to find out where you are at any given time.
If you use Google Search, Google knows what you look for online, what your interests are, what sites you visit, and what kind of research you do.
If you use any site that has Google ads on it or uses Google’s webmaster tools service, Google knows you have been to that site, how long you have been at that site, how frequently you visit that site, what pages on that site you visit, and therefore your account name on that site.
If you use Google Checkout, Google knows what products/services you buy, your credit card numbers, your mailing address, your telephone number, your real name, and your credit history.
If you use Google Desktop, Google knows every single file on your computer, what programs you have installed, what documents you have and what is inside of them, and when you are physically at your computer.
If you use Google Maps/Directions, Google knows where you go and when you go there.
If you use Google/Picasa, Google knows all of your pictures, when they were taken, which camera they were taken with, and who has looked at those pictures.
If you use Google Talk, Google knows who you talk with and what you say to them including your interests, plans to meet with that individual, and all of your other IM accounts that you have configured Google Talk to use.
If you use Google Web Accelerator/Google Toolbar, Google knows which sites you visit, how long you visit them, and which pages you visit. They also have access to all of your web traffic.
If you use Blogger, Google knows every single blog post you made and what you put in it as well as information on all of the peope who read your blog.
If you use Google Docs, Google knows your documents, who created them, who has looked at them (if that information is stored in the metadata), etc.
If you visit any sites that use Feedburner, Google knows you visited that site, how long you visited that site, what pages you viewed and how long you viewed them for.
If you use Feedburner/Google Reader, Google knows that you visit those sites and how much time you put into reading information on them.
If you use Orkut, Google knows all the information you provide to it such as who your friends are, who you associate with and what you say to those people, what your interests are, etc.
If you use Google Pages, Google knows all the content on your website, who looks at it, for how long, and where they look.
If you use YouTube/Google Video, Google knows which videos you watch, which channels you subscribe to, how long you watch each video, which videos you have uploaded, who your friends are on those services, etc.
If you use Google Code, Google knows who has downloaded your software and how often they update it.
If you use Google Book Search, Google knows which books you read and therfore your interests, etc.
If you use Google Finance, Google knows which companies you are interested in, and possibly which ones you invest in.
If you use Google Groups or any of the groups that they aggregate, Google knows all the emails you have posted to those groups, who you associate with on those groups, your interests, etc.
If you use GOOG-411, Google knows what businesses you lookup and your phone number
Every time you access one of Google’s services, they know where you accessed it from, how long you accessed it, and why you accessed it, making it possible to track your every move. Their databases know what your interests are, who you associate with, what you do in your spare time, where you go and how long you stay there, what your phone number is, what your credit card number is, what products/services you buy, what things you publish on the web, and everything anybody could ever want to know about you. It’s incredibly scary, and I’ve been getting off the Google train for some time now. If you must use Google’s services, use them behind a proxy such as Tor, delete your cookies regularly, and get a Firefox extension such as Adblock Plus so they can’t track you on “affiliate” sites. It might prove useful to have multiple identities on Google so that it’s less difficult for them to figure out who you are but the minute they have one piece of information that connects them all such as your IP address or credit card number, you’ll have to start over again.
– Min första reaktion var ilska: Hur vågar någon komma och fotografera mitt hem utan att be om tillstånd! Vi har redan haft tre inbrott här de senaste sex veckorna. Om våra hus finns på bild över hela Google är det som en inbjudan till tjuvar, berättar Paul Jacobs för tidningen Time.
Han samlade ihop grannarna, de bildade en mänsklig kedja runt kvarteret, och den svarta Opel Astran tvingades till en u-sväng. Byborna hade jagat Google på flykt.
Det är lätt att fnissa åt totalkrocken mellan sökjätten och den sömniga småstaden. Men det är fler än Broughton-borna som ställer frågan om Google håller på att bli för ambitiösa i sin uttalade ambition att samla in all världens information och göra den tillgänglig för alla. Vissa oroas över att ett enda företag tar kontroll över en för stor del av vår vardag på internet: från sökmotor, mejl och bloggar till videoklipp, karttjänster och webbläsare.
I Expressen skrev kulturjournalisten Andreas Ekström att den som känner demokratiskt ansvar för integritetsfrågor gör större skillnad genom att minimera sitt Google-användande än att bekymra sig för FRA. Pär Ström, FRA-debattör och integritetsombudsman på tankesmedjan Den nya välfärden, vill inte dra sin oro för Google riktigt så långt.
– Men Google skickar in tentakler på fler och fler områden och det är klart obehagligt. Det är väldigt mycket information som de har möjlighet att samla in om hur människor lever sina liv: om vilka sajter vi besöker, vilka sökord vi använder, vad vi skriver i våra mejl. En risk är att information läcker, att regler och lagstiftning ändras med tiden, att det som är otänkbart att göra i dag görs lagligt om ett antal år.