Forum Moderators: Robert Charlton & goodroi
Today we're helping people get better search results by extending Personalized Search to signed-out users worldwide
That's a staggering statement meaning that every computer accessing Google is now being personalized, signed in or not, so any desktop, laptop or kiosk will start tracking everything everyone does and you won't be able to access the same search results from any two machines.
The possible impact to all is staggering.
In the UK Google have to comply with the Data Protection Act. If we all write to them and ask them to provide a copy of the information they hold on each of us they must provide a copy of it.
They will probably say that Google U.K. Ltd. does not store any data about you at all (as the data is stored by Google, Inc. in Mountain View, California). This leads nowhere.
Does anyone know what Google's current policy is about anonymizing their log data? The last statement I remember is from 2008:
Previously, we kept this data for as long as it was useful. Today we're pleased to report a change in our privacy policy: Unless we're legally required to retain log data for longer, we will anonymize our server logs after a limited period of time. When we implement this policy change in the coming months, we will continue to keep server log data (so that we can improve Google's services and protect them from security and other abuses)—but will make this data much more anonymous, so that it can no longer be identified with individual users, after 18-24 months...Update (April 2008:) After the explanation above concerning our decision to anonymize our server logs after 18-24 months, we subsequently decided on 18 months
Official Google Blog [googleblog.blogspot.com]
Following the links in that blog post you can find other public statements from Google about data retention and privacy. I'm all for getting specific about the current situation and knowing what Google has told us - we can and should hold them to those public assurances, at a minimum. Also see:
1. Google's Privacy Center [google.com] for details about the current privacy policies in 42 of Google's products and services.
2. Our discussion of Google's Dashboard [webmasterworld.com] - the one-stop-shop that Google released in November for working with your personal privacy information across many products.
I can't quite see that happening. Google's been serving personalized results for logged in users for quite a while and nothing even close has been seen so far. If things did go that way, Google would VERY rapidly lose market share. It's sure that other search engines would not make the same mistake and they'd be happy to serve the refugees!
They will probably say that Google U.K. Ltd. does not store any data about you at all (as the data is stored by Google, Inc. in Mountain View, California). This leads nowhere.
Exactly, these people (Gorg) and other corporates spend unimaginable amounts of money on the very best lawyers all over the world in order to be able to do whatever they want when they want.
The only thing that will hurt the G-brand is a boycott of the product, and funnily enough I still can't bring myself to do this. Why not I wonder?
The only thing that will hurt the G-brand is a boycott of the product, and funnily enough I still can't bring myself to do this. Why not I wonder?
If nothing else, it can be a quite interesting experience. I've been on Google de-tox for a while now, and think it's positive.
1) Go get a Firefox browser.
2) Make Bing your default search engine (top right).
3) Disable all the Google default settings (which takes some work) and have Cookies deleted when you close the browser.
4) Go look for a popular Ad Blocker in the mozilla.org plugins.
5) Customize that Ad Blocker to block anything (images, scripts) from doubleclick, googlesyndication, and google-analytics.
Then comes the difficult part - when ever you want to search something, you need to overcome the reflex of wanting to type in Google's address [yes, it's THAT bad]. Use Google ONLY if you are getting nowhere with the alternatives. This will be difficult at first, but it can be done.
Within a week or two, you will be pretty much de-toxed from Google.
Each time I log back in my logged out preferences change. Each time I use gmail I have to log out, go back to Web History and disable it again! How are you guys getting Google to permanently disable your logged out preferences? Or is the system designed with this nag level to ensure I eventually give up?
On a different matter, is anyone using a service such as TrackMeNot [mrl.nyu.edu]? If enough of us use such a muddying-Google's-water service won't that have an impact?
If you really have the time: A Tack in the Shoe: Neutralizing and Resisting the New Surveillance [web.mit.edu] - from 2003 and before Google's tentacles got this long.
I have not used TrackMeNot, but another ad blocker (look for the most popular ad blocker at mozilla.org) that lets you even see all blockable items for each page. A true eye-opener.
