Google Might Be a Big Brother

vista

Electoral Member
Mar 28, 2004
314
0
16
www.newsgateway.ca
Be it the NSA's electronic interception spyware, ECHELON or the USG's backdoor software spyware, PROMIS or Google - privacy is a myth.

Google Might Be a Big Brother

People who use public or workplace computers for e-mail, instant messaging and web searching have a new privacy risk to worry about: Google's free tool that indexes a PC's contents for quickly locating data.If the new Google tool is installed on computers at libraries and internet cafes, users could unwittingly allow people who follow them on the PCs, for example, to see sensitive information in e-mails they've exchanged.

That could mean revealed passwords, exposed conversations with doctors or viewed web pages detailing online purchases.

Google Desktop Search, publicly released in a beta test phase for computers running the latest Windows operating systems, automatically records e-mail you read through Outlook, Outlook Express or the Internet Explorer browser.

It also saves copies of web pages you view through IE and chat conversations using America Online instant-messaging software. And it finds Word, Excel and PowerPoint files stored on the computer.

http://www.wired.com/news/business/0,1367,65397,00.html?tw=wn_tophead_6
 

bevvyd

Electoral Member
Jul 29, 2004
848
0
16
Mission, BC
Vista, I heard about this too and thought the exact same thing. Google is a great search engine but I think I'll leave it at that.
 

vista

Electoral Member
Mar 28, 2004
314
0
16
www.newsgateway.ca
The question needed to be asked is WHY?

Why is this extensive tracking necessary?

What is the information for? To match up web page advertisements?

Hmmm...

John Poindexter and Total Information Awareness come to a computer near you through a web friendly public company.

The CIA is Wall Street. Wall Street is the CIA.
 

Andem

dev
Mar 24, 2002
5,643
128
63
Larnaka
Google used to be a great search engine.. It's technology is still amazing, but the areas where they've been treading lately has been questionable. Not only does this new tool possibly violate somebody's privacy, but they do track everything you do through a unique cookie which is placed on your computer since the first time you visited Google.

With this, they follow your cookie (which is associated with an ip address(es), 'geo-targeting') and use this to improve their ad serving.. Similar to the same thing that Doubleclick was famous for a year or two ago.
 

Andem

dev
Mar 24, 2002
5,643
128
63
Larnaka
BTW, ever since the IPO, Google has been changing somewhat. Very minor changes (many won't notice), but webmasters will.
 

Reverend Blair

Council Member
Apr 3, 2004
1,238
1
38
Winnipeg
RE: Google Might Be a Big

That about sums it up, Vista. We are all being profiled all of the time. It keeps me from using plastic, my debit and credit cards stay in my wallet. It encouraged me to become part of the Credit Union and close all other accounts because they have stated they will not give our information to US companies.

I've long assumed that they are watching us on the internet though. If we are going to use this weird mojo, that's going to happen. Canada, under the lack of leadership provided by the spineless Paul Martin, is likely going to further integrate our internet service laws with the US as well. Funny how that announcement came out just a little bit before this Google thing, isn't it?
 

Reverend Blair

Council Member
Apr 3, 2004
1,238
1
38
Winnipeg
RE: Google Might Be a Big

Stay off the Prozac...there's a reason why they don't want us to feel.

Really though...I have some letters from ny great aunt to my grandmother. Don't ever fall into the trap into thinking thises people aren't out to get you. They were tapping school teacher's phones in the sixties and you can be absofuckinglutely assurred they are looking in everytime I say that George Bush is a criminal moron who needs to be spiked to the big tree in my backyard.

The guys in the black Ford in front of my house enjoy Molson beer and Pizza Hut pizza. In their spare time they ask my neighbours questions and tease my dogs.
 

Cosmo

House Member
Jul 10, 2004
3,725
22
38
Victoria, BC
Re: RE: Google Might Be a Big

Reverend Blair said:
That about sums it up, Vista. We are all being profiled all of the time. It keeps me from using plastic, my debit and credit cards stay in my wallet. It encouraged me to become part of the Credit Union and close all other accounts because they have stated they will not give our information to US companies.

Geez, Rev, I like the way you think. I thought I was the only one who stays off the radar as much as possible. I put it down to an innate paranoia, blamed it on being an eccentric Aquarian and have generally learned to live with the sense of "big brother" watching.

I give out as little info as possible to anyone, (love those telephone surveys, tho, since I tell them outrageous lies!) and I am one of the few people I know who deal in cash rather than plastic. Even prospective landlords and employers get as little info as possible. I tell people I'm concerned with "identity theft" (gawd knows who'd want mine tho!) but in reality it's just a case of wanting to put myself out there as little as I must.

Recently there was a trauma in my family where one member suffered abuse at the hands of another. It was all very ugly. I ended up in the middle of it doing a rescue that involved various medical and legal agencies. Then, coincidentally, a couple of weeks later I get this phone call survey from a "university" asking about being the victim of violence or knowing someone who was. Curious, I anonymously answered the questions. The survey quickly segued into gun control, my stand on it and whether I would use a gun under certain hypothetical situations. Since I fall on the right side of the law and plan to register the guns I will eventually inherit from my father, and since the survey pissed me off, I was honest with the caller, but the timing of the "survey" was most interesting.

As you pointed out, Rev, you believe our conversations here in the forum may be monitored. I have wondered that often. People tend to let down their guard in places like this because it feels very anonymous and debates can get quite heated. Anyone trolling for info on a person could find a wealth of it in places like this.

I always figure anything I say in email or on the internet is not private. At the risk of sounding like Mulder from X-Files, "Trust No One" is a personal credo when it comes to the internet. Actually, I'm more like one of the "Four Horsemen" from that program ... a total paranoid. :) Although my life is highly uninteresting and I doubt it would be of any significance to any organization, I still value my privacy. Or what little of it I have left.

Reverend Blair said:
Canada, under the lack of leadership provided by the spineless Paul Martin, is likely going to further integrate our internet service laws with the US as well.

It makes me wonder why. If knowledge is power, Canada would not give something like this away free. I wonder what is in it for our government? Perhaps I don't want to know!