I didn't realise that google can track my details to this extent.
Google maintains a lifetime cookie that expires in 2038, and records the user's IP address. But more recently it has begun to integrate services which record the user's personal search history, email, shopping habits, and social contacts.
That sucks! That means I'll be 50 before Google deletes the information about me from a search I make today! And I highly doubt that they actually use this info to personalize my search. If so, I have yet to see it in effect.
Google makes fine products, and all of the ones tailored for users like myself are free, but they want something more valuable than money in return; they want you. They want to know what you like and dislike, what sort of items you buy at your favorite online market, your favorite brand of clothing, your favorite porn star... some of the things you search for are harmless, but sometimes people want to search for something confidentially, and with the world's best search engine, that is impossible. Plus, if you use their email (Gmail), they get to know even more about you. They see every conversation you have, every newsletter you subscribe to, etc.
Thanks for digging that up, hazelnut. Very interesting reading.
guess this means i should stop using GMail
guess this means i should stop using GMail
Yeah, I've thought about that a few times, but I don't think I ever could. I used Yahoo! in the past, and Gmail is better than it in every way possible. I like Gmail too much to give it up, even if it does spy on me. At least I can take some comfort in knowing that it is also spying on all of the other Gmail users.
well yahoo isnt that bad. they offer enough storage space, file attachment space, a decent spam blocker, and they also offer Norton AntiVirus which is kinda nice.
you can also use POP with it via a program called YPOPs .
but yeah i dont think ima quit using GMail. i've stuck with it for too long
Yeah, but Gmail offers over 2.5 X as much space as Yahoo! (whether or not you use it, you still have bragging rights ), and they scan your emails with AVG, which isn't a bad antivirus in my opinion, it doesn't have adds all over the place like Yahoo!, it lets you receive RSS feeds (I could read those all day long), plus it lets you search your emails, which is very helpful to me. One thing I don't like about both GMail and Yahoo! is the 10 MB attachment cap. Gmail will actually let you go a little bit over 10 MB, but not much.
But I figure Yahoo! Mail doesn't really have anything that makes it better than Gmail, while Gmail does have some features that are just plain better than Yahoo!'s. I just wish Gmail would make their spying habits more explicit when you sign up or receive an invite to an account.
I thought Google was our friend
There was an article about search engines and privacy in the NY Times yesterday. I posted the link in the Windows Security forum. In the article there's links to Wired.com and searchenginewatch.com for more info and advice.
The links in the article are for the home pages of the websites. The info was kind of hard to find so I included links directly to the web pages the article refers to in my post.
Yeah, I knew about this. There is a website about this and other stuff of Google at http://www.google-watch.org/
I kinda like Google, it seems to be a good company that done some pretty good deeds. But the Google cookie, that I dont like. If you only use Google for searching, then you can block the cookie. But if you use Gmail then you cant block the cookies. However, you can delete it, but thats an inconvience.
Gmail is a great service, with large space, no graphical ads and annoyance, technically it is very good. It could be better, but looking at the alternative, it seems it is the best. Too bad they dont release the source code for it.
I consider myself a privacy concerned person, and I do not want the Google cookie nor any other cookie for that matter, unless absolutely nescesary. And I do absolutely not want my information to be shared with any goverment or anything else for that matter.
However, Yahoo, MSN, AOL already gave the goverment the data when asked. Atleast Google have showed sign of not wishing to comply.