I heard some news that Google are going to scour the web for information about what you search and what you buy and use that to form a profile of you that will be publically accessible.

How are they going to collect this information?

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2 good 2 need 4 engines

Are going to? You mean they don't do most of that already? I'd be very surprised if not.

I would think that every time you type the words "bad astronomy moon hoax" into a Google search box, a little counter next to the terms "bad astronomy," "astronomy," "moon," "hoax," and "moon hoax" get incremented. Then those numbers get sold to people.

Now, that they'd form a profile of an individual and publicly distribute that seems very unlikely, especially given their history for being picky about privacy. Maybe they'd let you build your own profile, and do the search, and then approve what gets displayed....

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"It's turtles all the way down."

by using their search engine? Sorry couldnt help it.

they could just buy info lists on what you do. they most likely already record all the searches you do on google, so it wouldnt be hard to start there.

I want to know how they plan on confirming ID when they start posting your behavoir without your permission. Someone swiping unsecure wireless, or on someone elses 'puter could lead to unflattering info that seems to come from you. Since employers are already starting to look at blogs and finding reasons to fire/not hire, just imagine what someone hacking your puter and using it as a viagra selling zombie would make you look like.

I think the further we move into the 21st century the less we can worry about a concept such as privacy. The fact is - it is disappearing and there is nothing anyone can really do about it.

You have to consider any activity you undertake on a computer is not a private action and can be traced to you, and these records will only keep growing over the course of your life. The only way to avoid this is to always use computers in internet cafes - and then, never log into any accounts you may have on the Internet! Which basically makes it very hard to get anything done!

Although you can still conduct research of all types online completely anonymously (as long as you're using a computer at a public location or internet cafe), there's not much else you can do without it being traced back and linked to you - and nor should you expect that anything else you do will not be traced back to you. I'm certainly well aware of this when doing things online, but it seems the younger generation often doesn't consider this when ranting about things on forums/myspace pages or via email from the personal account etc.

It does amaze me how naive people are when it comes to this sort of thing really.

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BugMeNot A portal to bypass free-site registration.

"All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed, second it is violently opposed, and third, it is accepted as self-evident." Arthur Schopenhauer - renowned 19th Century German philosopher.

If you remove cookies from your sys daily/hourly does that help?

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'Sir........, I don't like these numbers.'
'Then hire somebody that can change them!'
("`-/")_.-'"``-.,,
\. . `; -._( );, `)
(v_,)' _ )`-. \ ``'`
_.- _..-/ /((.'
((,.-' ((,/

not in the least, I'm afraid. cookies are kept locally, whereas tracking this kind of info would be server stored

It is done through IP address then?

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'Sir........, I don't like these numbers.'
'Then hire somebody that can change them!'
("`-/")_.-'"``-.,,
\. . `; -._( );, `)
(v_,)' _ )`-. \ ``'`
_.- _..-/ /((.'
((,.-' ((,/

taht would be the obvious way, yes. In these days of broadband, you rarely change your IP address

I know a way. Should I PM you with it?

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'Sir........, I don't like these numbers.'
'Then hire somebody that can change them!'
("`-/")_.-'"``-.,,
\. . `; -._( );, `)
(v_,)' _ )`-. \ ``'`
_.- _..-/ /((.'
((,.-' ((,/

Even changing IP probably isn't enough, though. First of all, your computer sends out all sorts of information when you make an http request (or any TCP connection). It's not really my area, and I don't want to say anything untrue, so look it up yourself, but your machine can probably be identified by that information alone.

And even if not, if you provide enough search requests, and that information is coupled with limited IP data, sophisticated data mining algorithms can probably pick out your behaviour. That's a lot of effort, though.

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"It's turtles all the way down."

Yeah but is it really a threat to privacy? Knee-jerk reaction to "you're being tracked" is that it's bad. The mark of the beast. Big brother. Etc. But who cares if they tailor ads and services based on your interests? Sounds like a convienance to me.

A bigger threat to privacy would be them keeping a database of all the ccard#'s, passwords, private identifiers (ssn, mother's maiden name, etc), etc. As far as, say, finding yourself in court and your browsing habits becoming evidence...well, they can and do already do that. While it's possible to wipe your HDD's free of that data, most people don't routinely do it throughouly enough to keep them from being able to access it. As far as criminal exploitation; I don't see any real big threat from them being able to access my browsing habits. Are there situations where it could be used for criminal activity? Probably, criminals are ingenious. Are they any worse that what criminals already do? No, not really.

Besides, with all the hidden trackers and adware and the like out there today, most people whether they like it or not are already being "profiled". So the "bad guys" already have this data. I don't see the harm in Google having it as well.

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I'm like one of those idiot savants...well, except for the savant part.

I think you´ve said it all. Privacy is increasingly looking like a primitive concept, something incompatible with [post]modern times. We´ll have to make a choice at some point. I think we´ll have to give up most of our privay in order to enjoy the wonders of modernity [not that I feel much happy about it].

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If you're careful enough, nothing bad or good will ever happen to you.

I think you´ve said it all. Privacy is increasingly looking like a primitive concept, something incompatible with [post]modern times. I think this is a fallacy. How much privacy was there historically? Before cars and roads and telephones, when everyone lived in close, generally multigenerational family environments? Everyone knew everyone's business. Privacy is a rather modern invention. I'm also fairly certain that issues such as this particular one are not the result of decreased privacy, but rather the result of an increased expectation of privacy .

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I'm like one of those idiot savants...well, except for the savant part.

Hmm that got me thinking.
I think you're right, but the problem is, the damage that could be done now is extensive. In the old days, when somebody said "I am Joe", everybody new darn well it wasn't Joe.

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Numbers are not case sensitive. (me)

That's part two of the equation. With the explosion of credit and loan programs, as well as the emergance of a much more isolated society, it's easy and common for ner'do'wellers to use this information for unlawfull purposes. I'm not saying that private information should not be protected. What I'm saying is that, in general, our perception of what information constitutes as private has greatly changed. We now expect our medical history to be private. We don't want people knowing how much money we make, or how we spend it. We don't like people tracking who we hang out with or what we like to do in our spare time. These are all things that would have most likely been known by at least a handfull of your neighbors and local merchants not 100 years ago.

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I'm like one of those idiot savants...well, except for the savant part.

The vanishing of privacy is scary!
It is a cheap trade in to deliver your persona (or what is perseived as it!) for a few cent worth of "customer sevices".
Is America still the land of the free?
Data-security /private-ownership-of-personal-data seems to count for little in the leading internet nation.
Instead of beeing in the hand of the One Big Brother we are ever more falling prey to a gready consumer industry.
And mainstream culture seems to embrace just that with a throbbing heart.
I for one loved the British for their invention of privacy (My home is my castle/Keep a stiff upper lip/No sex please, we are English/and all that.....)
I see that this is not the right forum for a detailed discussion on this.
Does anyone here know such a place with educated members?
Please link!

My provider allocates me a different IP address (from a fixed pool) for any single session. But of course if you register somewhere, accept cookies.... you get transparent to the degree anyone is willing to muster an efford (or bend the few rules).
There was one clever guy called Lenin who gave us (among other fine things ) the wise rule that nobody should be trusted blindly.
I would think, that's the good version of Leninism

You can still track people uniquely through their MAC address, if your server is rigged to look at the network packets. That is generally more persistent.

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In Fallout 3, 'happiness' is a warm junkyard dog and a loaded gun. It's mostly the loaded gun.
- Moose's one-line review.

"your going to regret that one. You are now a colonoscope...
- Chrissy, corrupting PraedSt's wish.

So the game is lost for us?

dont go online?