Comments on: Google Owns My Identity: 16 Things They Know About Me

By: lyesmith

lyesmith — Tue, 05 Oct 2010 07:52:54 +0000

Well that is pretty much the same thing that any webshop knows about you. At least the parts that is important.

You give your full name, address, phone number. I am much more concerned about the data that banks and insurance companies gather.

By: kmee

kmee — Mon, 05 Jul 2010 15:38:31 +0000

We make a free will choice when we turn on our computers .Somewhere someone is always watching ,listening and taking notes.Google is just honest about it.

By: Marc

Marc — Fri, 09 May 2008 04:14:54 +0000

@Blaine:
You got it. I delete them when the task is complete.

By: Blaine

Blaine — Fri, 09 May 2008 00:45:53 +0000

What is the best way to use Google Notebook as your daily ToDo list? Just use ‘labels’ as ‘Done’ items? Or do you just delete them?

By: Rab Babby

Rab Babby — Thu, 08 May 2008 13:03:51 +0000

You have no need of either the interweb, or Google to survive on this planet. Don’t forget that.

By: Digital Point of View » Blog Archive » Google (almost) owns you.

Digital Point of View » Blog Archive » Google (almost) owns you. — Thu, 06 Sep 2007 05:01:54 +0000

[…] have always know that Google collects information about what we do online. A post on Mark & Angel really points this […]

By: esvl

esvl — Fri, 31 Aug 2007 18:58:54 +0000

This is scary, almost like facebook.
Facebook even knows who your real friends are.
Usually when i search google i prefer to be signed out, I dont know if they track me but at least it makes me feel safer, and for adsense they even keep your bank account.

By: Marc

Marc — Fri, 31 Aug 2007 13:27:17 +0000

All of you have made some truly insightful points. Thanks for sharing!

@Oh Boy: I just can’t resist the power of the big G. I love their products and would be lost without them. 😉

By: el Cukro

el Cukro — Fri, 31 Aug 2007 09:03:07 +0000

The question is - does Google care?

I don't think so...

By: Trevor

Trevor — Fri, 31 Aug 2007 08:04:44 +0000

At least using Google is voluntary. Over here the UK government want to impose compulsory ID Cards and a vast National Identity Register that will make Google look positively ignorant.

By: Oh Boy

Oh Boy — Fri, 31 Aug 2007 07:34:03 +0000

People, people if you give all your personal information to this Moloch, you can blame only yourselves.

By: NY SEO

NY SEO — Thu, 30 Aug 2007 21:35:31 +0000

I have been getting more and more frightened of Google since the whole China debacle. My entire life is tied to them and being able to manipulate their index is my livelihood. When you added up all of the things they have on us it really seems scary. In my opinion, they are following the steps of IBM and Microsoft, and becoming bureaucratic money-loving corporations that steamroll little guys. And the quality of products and services they stick us with degrades over time.

I am praying it does not pan out this way though….

By: KnightCrawler

KnightCrawler — Thu, 30 Aug 2007 16:43:38 +0000

And when they give you your Google phone (equipped with the obligatory gps) they will know where you are, what local advertisers to solicit you with, who you call, how long you talk and likely, what you said. This has not been announced or discussed before, but think about it...think how specifically they would be able to target you with advertisements if their voice recognition tools could listen for keywords and evaluate what you said. And what's to keep them from logging your phone calls like they log your Google Talk conversations ?

If we all follow the Google Pied Piper down this road, consider ourselves chipped.

By: jellymelli

jellymelli — Thu, 30 Aug 2007 12:41:51 +0000

Google knows what color your underwear are. Honestly tho. Especially if you have a Google account that you are logged into during search. Just like vanessa mentioned, they know if you're planning a trip, looking to sell your dog, dieting, looking up porn. Google knows all. It's all logged. We're all just another statistic to build Google's all mighty algorithm.

Isn't it neat?

But this doesn't just happen online. I mean when you go to Vegas and have player cards, they track you around that city. Credit card companies know way too much about you and your family. It's all in databases.

Just tattoo my SSN on my neck, chip me, and get it over with.

By: VanessaFox

VanessaFox — Thu, 30 Aug 2007 11:40:16 +0000

Interesting angle. I bet there’s even more that they could derive. For instance, based on your search history, they probably know if you’re looking to buy a new car or are planning a trip. But to be fair to Google, they aren’t the only ones to know these things. Anyone who extensively uses Yahoo services, for instance, is probably giving up all of this information and more as well.

Also, it’s likely that no entity within Google has access to all of this information. And particularly, one assumes the financial data is protected, so although Google as a company may have all of this data, it’s unlikely that there’s any one person or team within Google who could aggregate it all and use it. We have, however, seen portions of this data be used together and will continue to see it used more over time — notably with personalized search.