You’d be hard-pressed to find a company more beloved than Google. And why not? They make the Internet easier to use, pamper their employees and foot the bill for YouTube even though it loses money like it’s got a gambling problem that’s made of cocaine. Unfortunately, much of what is awesome about Google also makes them increasingly terrifying with each passing day……
It turns out, Google records everything you enter into its search engine. The lonely night a few months back when you Googled “how many fists can fit in the butt?” That’s stored on Google’s servers, correlated with your IP address and a pretty shocking amount of other personal information…..
.But they’re not just passively stalking you via your weird ass searches. If you use Google to help you navigate the Web, there’s a good chance they’ve installed a cookie onto your browser that logs every page you visit, every form you fill out and every conversation you have. Google sees it all and stores it for at least nine months.
Consumer advocate group Privacy International says nine months is the best case scenario. Even if you only use a few of Google’s free services, “the company retains a large quantity of information about that user, often for an unstated or indefinite length of time, without clear limitation on subsequent use…..
In 2009, Google’s CEO Eric Schmidt warned users,
“If you have something that you don’t want anyone to know, maybe you shouldn’t be doing it in the first place. ”
So maybe it’s time to stop treating Google like a smarter, more trustworthy older sibling who has all the answers and more like a friend you trusted until you found the notebook where they track all of your bowel movements. No matter how much good advice they offer you, and how many times they claim the drawer full of hair they collected from your shower drain is “just in case,” you’ll never feel totally comfortable around them again.
Read on….
http://www.cracked.com/article_18540_5-reasons-you-should-be-scared-google.html
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