Amy: Blog 3/Google

Google provides an invaluable search tool, it's true; but at what cost? Is it really oay that one company has access to all persoanl information, all academic interests as well as perosnal interests, and to the contents of your computer as well (through Google desktop search tool). Is there any way for someone to "turn over a new leaf?" or more seriously, change identity thorugh the witness protection program? Can't Goolge figure out who even those people really are? And what are the alternatives? We either trust Google or we join those who are tryong to rein-in Google.

Google-Watch.org has the following choices:

Google v. copyright Big Broother is well-connected Creepy Gmail Rotten cookie Mozilla evades taxes Subpoena silliness Noncommercial links get buried How bloggers game Google Google must be stopped Spooks on board PageRank sucks googling Valerie
Printing more billions Google ♥ Wikipedia Our letter to Playboy Privacy at Google Drug problem Personal search: Holy Grail or crock? Google's China censorship High time for opt-in Is Google God? Your search terms end up in logs That's a lot to worry about. Google collects and maintains a storehouse of information about each of our computers with the ability to trace everything back to that computer, and so to each of us. Google Watch asks all of us to consider these questions at the heart of their concerns: Questions: Why was Google the first engine to use "maximum" cookies that expire in 2038? Why generate unique cookie ID numbers at all? Why is it that the only data retention policy Google appears to have, is to collect everything that can be collected about the searcher, and store it indefinitely? How does this help Google improve its engine? How can anyone at Google guarantee the future of all this data? Wouldn't Google better serve the public interest by retaining only the data it needs, and only for as long as needed, and then purge it on a regular schedule? Why does Google have to keep all this information about each of us? I think it's because they can; and because they can, they do; and since they do, they might as well play around with it to see what new things they can come up with by using it in different ways. At the heart of this accumulation of information, then, is a creative instinct that asks: "here we have it, what can we do with it." And because they have it, they needed a tag line like "Do no Evil" to remind Google employees that they have this info to play with, not destroy with. In the end, they could do either -- and that's what unnerves me.