Google is Watching You

Google has been served a letter by the European Union expressing concern about its prolonged data retention policies. Based on EU law, a company should only hold on to customer ata for as long as it is needed and not any longer. Google has replied that it will defend its policy stating that the company needs this information for the enhancement of their algorithms and search results.

You should be aware by now that with every search on Google that you perform, this search engine monster (as well as other search engines like Yahoo!, MSN, Alta Vista, etc) is collecting valuable information about your preferences, characteristics, mindset, etc. All this information is virtually a goldmine to the data mining companies.

While Google has been seen to strongly protect its customers’ data and consistently claim that this information is never sold or given to 3rd party companies for commercial gain, one wonders how long this will last. As some experts in the data mining field has said, that this is a data collection bomb waiting to go off.

I’m not sure about you, but I am uncomfortable with a complete stranger knowing information about myself that I don’t even know. In fact, Google is not ashamed to claim that they are making the search engine more personal in a way that it almost ‘knows’ you and what you would like to see. To make matters worse, I don’t even know entirely the type of information that they are constantly collecting about me! Do they know my hobbies? How about my biases and pet peeves? I’m afraid to even think about it, my vices and bad habits? I won’t be surprised if they can somehow gather this information through the things that I do online knowingly or unknowingly. Some of this information, even my closest friends do not have privy to.

Then the question is, what can we do about it? There is currently no law against companies from collecting raw data from people who use their services and definitely none that requires them to delete this information. As far as I see it, the current alternative would be to use a variety of search engines for your everyday use so that not one single search engine has all your data. Perhaps something like a ‘divide and conquer’ strategy? While this does not solve the problem, it may perhaps reduce the severity to a certain extent.

Another possible approach that I have figured would be to consistently delete the cookies that are automatically installed when I use Google to remember my preferences and feedback this information to the ‘Mothership’. I’m not entirely sure how effective this would be, but I know it will be a pain and many will frown at this idea. Anyway, it’s just a suggestion.

Then the other issue is this: How much would we be prepared to share in order to get the most relevant search results appearing on our screens? I believe that we all appreciate the relative effectiveness of Google in bringing relevant websites when we enter certain keywords and we definitely do not want to go to the other extreme of having a completely ineffective Google, which will make finding the necessary information a chore.

I believe that a balance needs to be struck, but of course, this is much easier said than done. The debate has been unending regarding where the line should be drawn for data collection and I think we will not see the end in the near future.

Bottom-line is this: Effective search results – GOOD. Data collection – BAD. Never the twain shall meet and a compromise must be reached. Currently, the chips are stacked in Google’s favour and they have unlimited freehold over the information collected and to be collected and currently, the onus is wholly on us, the users to control the amount of information we give to these giants until a clearer line can be drawn to mark the boundaries.