An engine loving you [what Google knows about you (v 2)]



The search engine and advertisement agency Google may know you better than most of your friends.

Imagine... a world with a wonderful search engine called g∞gle :

G∞gle : you got us, don't wriggle

g∞gle is not evil ; what happens when you use such an open service ?

These details mixed together gives G∞gle an ultra combo (the best one in Killer Instinct iirc) so the search engine can typically know a little bit who you are.[2]

Nothing is wrong with this kind of profiling ; it is pleasant to get such a kind of customized service. However it is a good thing to be lucid about how all this is done. With a little bit of data mining, some very interesting correspondences can be extracted from databases of requests. Databases do not forget. Of course it necessitates huge storage space and awesome computing power ; but is that really the problem ?

A potential method to avoid such exposure with G∞gle would be to generate artificial requests flooding and camouflaging the real ones. Anyway, lets return to Google now. A clever compagny.

Eventually, if you read Google's privacy policy, you realize that your personal information won't be sold... Everything is automatic, it is Deus Ex' Helios. No need to worry. So far so good.

[1] In the spirit of Bonuscards swaps, someone could write a program allowing people to share and exchange G∞gle cookies with the same preferences.
[2] Of course all these considerations also apply to your ISP, or to anyone sniffing your line ; TCP/IP communications are intrinsically spywary.


Little Neo, oct 2005 / upd feb 2007

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