Privacy Concerns?
I almost fell out of my chair laughing while reading this article on CNN.com talking about ISP’s that are afraid of implementing browsing tracking technology from targeted ads from companies like NebuAd because of privacy concerns. It seems that the US government is suddenly concerned about online privacy and there are inquiries into companies like these and threats to ISP’s that attempt to role out this technology. Protecting privacy sounds like a great idea to me but it is so little, so late that it is laughable to hear that the US government’s position. Taking a highly cynical view it sounds more to me like Google has finally hired lobbyists to preserve their monopoly on privacy invasion in the US.
Google tracks most of what we search, lots of what we browse, lots of what we click, lots of our email, lots of our video viewing and slowly wants to penetrate all personal web services to watch all that we do online including photo sharing, document sharing and now web browsing. All for the sole purpose of selling us the most targeted ads imaginable. Google has stored, sold and profited from more personal information about us than we can ever imagine and their behavior is entirely unchecked. Somehow we are suppose to feel comforted that the politically correct billionaires of Google have our best interests in mind since they give free M&M’s to their employees and are such great guys but it is just a matter of time until someone with enough money and interest will expose how much our trust and privacy has been exploited by Google.
If the US government is so concerned about companies like NebuAd that they threaten ISP’s that try to profit from them then it is time to take on the beast that is Google and look at what is really going on with all of our private data that they store and sell.
Technorati Tags: Google, NebuAd, Internet Privacy
Though it is said that Gmail’s spam filter is very good, I do not use Google mail for my personal emails just for the aspect you described: privacy.
They are too big that I don’t trust them having access to my data. I start thinking that I will remove the Google stats from my personal web site too.
My advice is to use the Google’s (and Yahoo’s, Microsoft’s, …) services - including email - just what they are for: free services for non-critical things, you don’t mind ever being shared (read: exploited), like giving an email address for registration to unknown companies.