

Google’s User Data Empire - niyazpk
http://www.slightlyshadyseo.com/index.php/googles-user-data-empire/

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varjag
"The other was a curious query, as it trasmitted events(used generic names so
I dont know what each stood for), a unique ID, and interestingly enough a
variable called “rep”, presumably implying a user reputation level."

It is very unlikely they would store reputation on the client side. I can only
applaud the author for healthy amount of justified paranoia, but here he most
likely off the mark.

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jodrellblank
And a lot more - blogger, picasa, google desktop search, google talk and
voice, google mobile, docs... I don't see a way to clear cookies in Maps on
the iPhone either.

I suspect there's a lot more that they can infer than we would initially
think, too. E.g. When you email someone at gmail, your sending ip address and
(typically) real name are in the headers - no need to use google checkout to
get a lot of probable matches.

It scares me not because I think google are abusing it now, but that it will
_never_ be deleted no matter what happens to google management or what
government gets in power - in any country they have data replicated - for the
rest of our lives. That could be a long time to trust them, and it becomes
more powerful the bigger the collection gets and the more we rely on the net.

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TweedHeads
Beware of shady companies in redmond using fake blogs to spread fud about
their competitors.

For some time I've been reading about how evil google is about privacy and
user data.

If you don't like it don't use it.

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Tichy
The data Google can collect is no FUD story. Whether it will turn bad
eventually or not is another question.

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shrughes
Well, there is certainly have fear, uncertainty, and doubt, but rightfully so.

