So how does Google know...

[Mikey]

Google currently has 120k of my searches stored in the dashboard, I'd think that that's pretty much a complete dossier of my activity online for 2011, if someone were to browse through all of these searches I'm sure they could glean something about what I do on the internet. A lot of them are coding related searches, so they can glean that I'm a coder. Some are maps searches of my local area, there are youtube searches so they know what songs I like.

The list goes on. *goes to click delete all*

 

[James]

Google currently has 120k of my searches stored in the dashboard. *goes to click delete all*

You should know by now, deleting doesn't delete anything - it just removes it from your view

 

[Mikey]

You should know by now, deleting doesn't delete anything - it just removes it from your view

Oh yeah that's most likely true, it says "Clear" and not "Delete". lol.

 

[Ryan Kent]

They would only relate to your IP though, not to a person. You could make those connections in other ways, but Google can't.

Ahh...not true. I was passing by a television last week and my attention was grabbed as a prosecutor used a guy's Google search records to nail him. Many people have gmail, or are webmasters (such as us), or use YouTube which is now integrated with google. When you are logged into any of your google accounts, they can track your searches and relate them to you personally.

Of course, you could always claim it was someone else on your account, but those arguments don't seem to go so well in court.

 

[Dark Matter]

just load the free Adblock Plus and be done with it. I haven't see ads in years.

I wish there was a "Dislike" button for that post.

 

[chousho]

While I love Google's ease of use and products, I also like privacy

http://duckduckgo.com/

It's not quite Google, but they don't keep tabs on you.

 

[Brandon Sheley]

This one is of interest to me and makes me wonder...

For the past week or two I've been using a gmail account with the word "law" in the user name. Not sure if that even makes any difference. But what I have noticed is that an ad for a competitor has been coming up everywhere Google serves adsense ads. I was taken to a landing page for a godaddy domain and the top ad, having nothing to do with law, was for the competitor. Then I'm on an aquarium site just a few days later. While some of the ads are fish related, one large 250x250 is of the same competitor!

Unless this competitor is spending massive amounts of money to sponsor something, I'm assuming that I'm being shown ads based upon some information they are collecting about me. I logged out of gmail but those ads are still being shown everywhere. I'm wondering if it may even be related to my ip address as I used my mobile phone to view the same Godaddy ad and I've received completely different ads. In fact, all the ads I was served from Adsense make me wonder what other information is being used to serve ads since they relate to credit issues, mortgage foreclosures and other legal matters, items that I have been reviewing for my legal site but am unsure as to how and why they'd appear on unrelated sites and obviously directed towards me.

This ->>Behavioural advertising
Also you might want to read over (Google: Our ad tracking is not Big Brother)

 

[Brett Peters]

Ahh...not true. I was passing by a television last week and my attention was grabbed as a prosecutor used a guy's Google search records to nail him. Many people have gmail, or are webmasters (such as us), or use YouTube which is now integrated with google. When you are logged into any of your google accounts, they can track your searches and relate them to you personally.

Of course, you could always claim it was someone else on your account, but those arguments don't seem to go so well in court.

Interesting that you mention google and television in a thread about google ads as I remember the sad day that I found out about googles eavesdropping plans.

The idea is to use the existing PC microphone to listen to whatever is heard in the background, be it music, your phone going off or the TV turned down. The PC then identifies it, using fingerprinting, and then shows you relevant content, whether that's adverts or search results, or a chat room on the subject.

No doubt that this info will also be part of ones google profile and easily requested by law enforcement.

 

[Forsaken]

Interesting that you mention google and television in a thread about google ads as I remember the sad day that I found out about googles eavesdropping plans.

No doubt that this info will also be part of ones google profile and easily requested by law enforcement.

Every company that stores information is required to release it to law enforcement if it is legally requested.

 

[Brett Peters]

Every company that stores information is required to release it to law enforcement if it is legally requested.

I dont think that I stated otherwise

 

[TheLaw]

I think that I've changed my thinking. I'm even more curious now that I have Google+. It is downright amazing as to how much information automatically appears in your profile when you get started. It's remarkably impressive and somewhat frightening all at the same time.