| At what point did I say Google was disclosing information about me? Every software product Google puts in the market, from web search to Gmail to Google Apps to Chrome to Android - they are all about collecting personal information, building a huge bank of data about individuals. I don't care if they never intend to disclose that information to someone else. I care that they are actively engaged in collecting the information in the first place. Further more - online advertising can work just fine without collecting such ridiculous amounts of information about people. Let me give you an example. A Toyota dealer (or the marketing department of Toyota itself) buys ads from a search engine.. let's call it.. Hoogle. I decide i want to buy a new car, so I go to my favourite search engine... Hoogle... and I search for "new cars in <location>". Somehow, through the magic of common sense, an ad, placed by Toyota, a CAR company, registers as being related to a search for "new CARS". They show me the ad. Oh and look. They didn't need to circumvent browser security policies around how cookies are handled, they didn't need to scan all my email, they didn't need to track the SSID of my local Wifi network... |