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Corporate Pig · **Big Brother is Google... -** 06-22-03

Quote:

Big Brother is Google

Google is one of about four search engines that matter. There are many more than four engines, but only about four have the technology to crawl most of the web on a regular basis. Alltheweb (now owned by Overture) does the best overall crawling, followed by Google and then Inktomi (now owned by Yahoo). Google's bizarre crawling can be unfair for large sites with low or average PageRank. They may not get to many of the pages each month on such sites, even though by the end of that crawl Google is grabbing pages in spasms, at a rate of several per second. Then the next month Google's crawlers start all over again and do the exact same thing...

...that's why we nominated Google for a Big Brother award in 2003. The nine points we raised in connection with this nomination necessarily focused on privacy issues. By the time the 2004 nominations are open, we hope that this list will be shorter rather than longer. But don't count on it.

1. Google's immortal cookie:
Google was the first search engine to use a cookie that expires in 2038. This was at a time when federal websites were prohibited from using persistent cookies altogether. Now it's years later, and immortal cookies are commonplace among search engines; Google set the standard because no one bothered to challenge them. This cookie places a unique ID number on your hard disk. Anytime you land on a Google page, you get a Google cookie if you don't already have one. If you have one, they read and record your unique ID number.

2. Google records everything they can:
For all searches they record the cookie ID, your Internet IP address, the time and date, your search terms, and your browser configuration. Increasingly, Google is customizing results based on your IP number. This is referred to in the industry as "IP delivery based on geolocation."

3. Google retains all data indefinitely:
Google has no data retention policies. There is evidence that they are able to easily access all the user information they collect and save.

4. Google won't say why they need this data:
Inquiries to Google about their privacy policies are ignored. When the New York Times (2002-11-28) asked Sergey Brin about whether Google ever gets subpoenaed for this information, he had no comment.

5. Google hires spooks:
Matt Cutts, a key Google engineer, used to work for the National Security Agency. Google wants to hire more people with security clearances, so that they can peddle their corporate assets to the spooks in Washington.

6. Google's toolbar is spyware:
With the advanced features enabled, Google's free toolbar for Explorer phones home with every page you surf. Yes, it reads your cookie too, and sends along the last search terms you used in the toolbar. Their privacy policy confesses this, but that's only because Alexa lost a class-action lawsuit when their toolbar did the same thing, and their privacy policy failed to explain this. Worse yet, Google's toolbar updates to new versions quietly, and without asking. This means that if you have the toolbar installed, Google essentially has complete access to your hard disk every time you phone home. Most software vendors, and even Microsoft, ask if you'd like an updated version. But not Google.

7. Google's cache copy is illegal:
Judging from Ninth Circuit precedent on the application of U.S. copyright laws to the Internet, Google's cache copy appears to be illegal. The only way a webmaster can avoid having his site cached on Google is to put a "noarchive" meta in the header of every page on his site. Surfers like the cache, but webmasters don't. Many webmasters have deleted questionable material from their sites, only to discover later that the problem pages live merrily on in Google's cache. The cache copy should be "opt-in" for webmasters, not "opt-out."

8. Google is not your friend:
Young, stupid script kiddies and many bloggers still think Google is "way kool," so by now Google enjoys a 75 percent monopoly for all external referrals to most websites. No webmaster can avoid seeking Google's approval these days, assuming he wants to increase traffic to his site. If he tries to take advantage of some of the known weaknesses in Google's semi-secret algorithms, he may find himself penalized by Google, and his traffic disappears. There are no detailed, published standards issued by Google, and there is no appeal process for penalized sites. Google is completely unaccountable. Most of the time they don't even answer email from webmasters.

9. Google is a privacy time bomb:
With 150 million searches per day, most from outside the U.S., Google amounts to a privacy disaster waiting to happen. Those newly-commissioned data-mining bureaucrats in Washington can only dream about the sort of slick efficiency that Google has already achieved.

Refer: http://www.google-watch.org/bigbro.html

NMaries · 06-23-03

So Google is behind all the bulk mail.

Damn them!

Uncletiggs · 06-23-03

they are behind more than just the bulk mail.. and as stated, there were 4 major search engines... Yahoo tracks you from the moment you log in.. And if you don't log out-all the way out- they track all the sites you goto as well..
Thats part of what causes slow load times and things of that nature...

NMaries · 06-23-03

Oh, I always remain logged in. They know I'm writing to you.

Uncletiggs · 06-24-03

LOL see, thats why i keep hiding behind the wall....
i hide every time i get pinged..

Axantha · 07-01-03

now for the scary part.....type your social security number into the Google search engine and hit send. It will pull up a map showing your home address.

SWITCHBLADE666 · 07-02-03

GODDAMN SPYWARE SHIT FROM HELL!!

SWITCHBLADE666 · 07-02-03

Quote:

Originally posted by Axantha
now for the scary part.....type your social security number into the Google search engine and hit send. It will pull up a map showing your home address.

I dont doubt it will...

Uncletiggs · 07-02-03

nother question...

WHO would be STUPID ENOUGH to type there SSI # into a search engine???

errantrogue · 07-02-03

dumbasses...

SWITCHBLADE666 · 07-02-03

Quote:

Originally posted by Darktiggr
nother question...

WHO would be STUPID ENOUGH to type there SSI # into a search engine???

youd be surprised...

NMaries · 07-03-03

Oh, yeh I do it all the time. Usually it's with legitimate businesses though. Like sometimes they will send offers through spam to get your credit card number.

Uncletiggs · 07-03-03

Not this guy... Better be a female that i'm (at least)sleeping with If you want any of that info from me...

NMaries · 07-05-03

Do you need to know her name or address?

TheObserver · 07-05-03

That's all a bit fucking frightening, if you ask me.

TheObserver · 07-05-03

Question, when you load Alltheweb, which language preferences does it give you? I'm giving it a shot now, for the first time... Always thought Google was the best, but if this one is better.. well then.