Has Google Gone too Far?

[ChrisChris]

Now don't get me wrong here, I'm not one of those people who just sit there and make conspiracies about companies like Google and Microsoft but I think this is just gone a bit over the top.

If you have a Google account (this includes Google webmaster tools, Gmail and Adsense) visit www.google.com/psearch/trends and not only will it show you what your top 10 searches are, but the top 10 websites that you visit and the top 10 links that you click on. It also shows you your monthly, hourly and daily search trends and compares them to other users. On the page you can see that there should be an option to pause and remove this service but the links are grayed out.

Similarly, check out www.google.com/history for a history of all your searches and the times they were made.

I personally find it disturbing that Google keeps this information about me and that they are probably using it for some reason or another. I for one, don't remember ticking any boxes or filling out any forms telling Google and I don't mind.

Responses like "If you don't like Google don't use them" really aren't necessary or appreciated :imho:

-Chris

 

[Philleh]

they also scan your emails..

 

[dezinerite]

I trust Google, I think that all these infos are kept private (unless of course someone hacks into your account). I'm pretty sure they keep all this information for them to analyze and better themselves. I mean, at least they allow us to view our history. I didn't know about the trends link 'til now, so thanks a lot!

 

[lpstong]

I believe by law any SE company like AOL, MSN, Google and Yahoo can keep your search data up to 2 years. So its no big news. I just dont like it being connected to my email accounts thats all. So be sure not to be logged in to your accounts when doing a search or activate any tools in your gmail. Thats all....

But come on we know that Google is behaving like a monster anyways. And they will continue this behavior until they get kicked in the groin.

 

[RDrapster]

Kinda creepy...

 

[AussieDomainer]

Yeah, I must admit that I'm not too keen on the idea of Google (or any other company) keeping a record of my search data etc. I think the world we are living in is becoming less and less private and I'm not sure it's such a good thing.