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[GomJabbar]

From The New York Times, Published: November 28, 2005
Article title: "Editorial Observer; What Google Should Roll Out Next: A Privacy Upgrade"
Article is in archive and available only to paying subscribers, so I am not posting the link.

The biggest area where Google's principles are likely to conflict is privacy. Google has been aggressive about collecting information about its users' activities online. It stores their search data, possibly forever, and puts ''cookies'' on their computers that make it possible to track those searches in a personally identifiable way -- cookies that do not expire until 2038. Its e-mail system, Gmail, scans the content of e-mail messages so relevant ads can be posted. Google's written privacy policy reserves the right to pool what it learns about users from their searches with what it learns from their e-mail messages, though Google says it won't do so. It also warns that users' personal information may be processed on computers located in other countries.

The government can gain access to Google's data storehouse simply by presenting a valid warrant or subpoena. Under the Patriot Act, Google may not be able to tell users when it hands over their searches or e-mail messages. If the federal government announced plans to directly collect the sort of data Google does, there would be an uproar -- in fact there was in 2003, when the Pentagon announced its Total Information Awareness program, which was quickly shut down.

[AlphaKilo470]

[censored], my secret yard upkeep tips are out, as is grandma's gumbo recipe.

I knew many possible security compromises when I sighned up on g-mail in early or mid 2004 but to this day haven't seen too many troubles. The ads are the same as what you get when using Google, the ones that sit on the side and generate content based on a couple of buzzwords found on the page.

As for government being able to access stuff, I don't see how it's any different than if they subpoenaed yahoo or earthlink or someone else except there are news articles published about gmail.

For the cookies, if you have the latest Firefox version, Ctrl Shift Del and they are gone with a few checks and a button click.

As for any other privacy issues as I'm sure there are ton, well, as bad as any may be, it really is Google's privalegde to take whatever information they wish (as long as it's not agaisnt the law) from you as you are logging into their computers that they pay to maintain and keep up. The same really goes for just about all websites.

I'm not saying anyones good or bad in this issue, I'm just saying that the biggest issue is not how information is gathered, what information is gathered, why, where, etc. I think the thing is the user needs to know what is at stake and what's not when they log onto the internet and access other servers. Since most of these companies have rights to their opwn computers and servers, which includes information about the people who have accessed them, the most important thing is that each user is aware and well informed of the risks he or she is taking in entering each site and accessing each server they go to.

I'm not for people getting my information at all, but I also don't feel ver y sorry for anyone who is surprised at anything going on. I think that the companies should have restrictions on what they can know about the user because his browsing habits aren't exactly public and access to the users computer should only be allowed with consent but I also think that users need to take more precaution and make sure they know a sites privacy agreement if this is an area of concern to them. I guess it's safe to call this viewpoint of mine "double sided" but I think that's how things should be, I think both sides need to be looked at in this issue.