Search Engine

A couple years ago, all the major search engines were asked to turn in information about searches and which user were searching for what; It was a huge deal. Everyone’s assumed privacy was grossly being invaded. No one wanted to be accused of surfing for porn just because they typed in ‘boobs’ or being considered a pedophile because they typed in ‘kids toys’.

But is Google using this information to build user profiles? I think they’re, but at the same time they aren’t showing their hand by trying to customize the searches based on things you searched for and what other ‘like’ persons search for… based on a list or user profile.

Think about everything you’ve ever searched for and just imaging taking that and building a profile of what you clicked on. Google would be able to build a pretty accurate profile of what TYPE of person you are.

They would know that you can be dishonest, froogle, smart, well paid, like to shop or like to spend money on high end items or if you’re a DIY kind’a person; it’s all right there.

GMAIL

So how hard is it to ease drop on you email account is it anyway. Google is a great web based email provider, but they’ve also added functionality to get emails from other accounts and mix them together in one pile; to have all your emails in one place for you- and them?

Instant Messages {Google Talk]

GoogleTalk is right up there with all the popular chat clients.

A lot of traffic is going through there a day; what if they wanted to monitor just one person- could they/would they? And what if a court [local or domestic] wanted the chat logs of everything that as said or files transferred…

You mix this in with your search habit’s and your starting to build a really good picture.

Google Voice [GTALK]

This is one of those new services by Google that’s really going to stand out. Google is really trying to put themselves in a position to have information and control it. Where’s the promise it’s not going to be used for other uses. What if the government says they have to turn over every transcribed voice message, fax or email that’s been processed.

even if you’re a good person a lot of information can be skewed and used against you; this is what prosecutors do- it’s a refined art.

Google Docs [office]

There’s something about creating, storing and depending on Google to handle my documents. I mean really, why do you need to create a document at all; you going to put important information in there- sometimes personal or confidential information in there.

If you’re working with spreadsheets, your storing numbers, statistics, percentages and ratios of sales or project projections- These are the things you need a spreadsheet for… You don’t create a spreadsheet to store pretty pictures.

And while all this information is being stored; is it being reviewed cataloged? Are they digging through it for key words and if they hit one are they going to open your patent idea, your potential customer sales or your home monthly budget? We don’t know.

Intrusive adverts

Not forgetting Google is an advertising company, they sell ad space and put it everywhere. They’re already placing ads in the GMAIL pages.

Now, what’s going to make me sit up and cough is when I’m in the middle of a Instant Message and then I get an advert about a word I sent or received.

Are they going to be transcribing the voice mails, picking up keywords and then placing voice/audio ads in the emails you get; listening to ads in your own voice message.