Google is Watching You

Anytime we have a question or want to learn more about something, we turn to Google. Whether it’s to get the latest details on ISIS, Robin Williams, Ebola or the Academy Awards, Google is always there for us to turn to. It knows us well. A little too well.

Google, by far the most popular search engine, has a market share of 74.8%, followed by Bing at 12.4% and Yahoo at 10.9%. As we use Google's search engine, small data files—cookies—are stored in our computers filled with information about sites we have visited and products we clicked on. For example, we may have been browsing on Amazon for a product, and then later, while on Facebook, seen that same product in an advertisement on our news feed. That is an example of a cookie.

To the left is example of an ad placed on my Facebook feed after recently looking at Amazon Fire tablets on Amazon based on cookies stored on my computer. 

Google says that its mission is, "to organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful." Between all the searching going on by millions of Americans each day, you can only imagine how much Google knows about us and our online habits.

Google’s collection of user data has been under much criticism in terms of ethics, privacy, and security. Let’s take a look at the different sources of data Google uses on us. 

Here's some channels Google uses to learn about us:

• Web searches: This includes images, news, blogs. All searches are tracked
• Clicks on search results: Along with tracking what you search, it also tracks what sites you clicked on
• Website analytics: Google Analytics, which is free, supports a large percentage of the world's websites
• Email: Gmail content, both sent and received, is parsed and analyzed.
• Twitter: Google has direct access to all tweets that pass through Twitter.
• Google Apps: (Docs, Spreadsheets, Calendar, etc.) – Google’s office suite has many users and is of course a valuable data source to Google.
• The Google Chrome browser: Our website browsing behavior is tracked.
• Google Maps: If you've ever used this to get directions, Google knows that, too.
• YouTube: Owned by Google, YouTube a huge amount of information about its users’ viewing habits.

See all the other channels here

Terms of Agreement

Last year, Google updated its terms of service by saying, "Our automated systems analyze your content (including emails) to provide you personally relevant product features, such as customized search results, tailored advertising, and spam and malware detection. This analysis occurs as the content is sent, received, and when it is stored."

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Google says that by using its services, we give the company license to use, host, store, reproduce, publish, publicly display and distribute such content. In return, Google analyze our content (including emails) to give us personally relevant product features, such as customized search results, tailored advertising, and spam and malware detection.

Though the terms of service is there, I had never read it. I didn't even think to look up Google's terms of service.

Ethics

In 2009, Google CEO Eric Schmidt said, “If you have something that you don’t want anyone to know, maybe you shouldn’t be doing it in the first place.” 

This caused a buzz on the Internet, causing interpretation by to mean that Google, a company that claims to care about privacy, isn’t concerned enough to understand the basic lesson on privacy and preservation of freedom and human rights. 

At the same time, Schmidt reportedly blacklisted all CNET reporters for a year after the news website published personal information of one of Google’s founders in an article: his salary, his neighborhood, his hobbies and personal donations, all of which were obtained through Google searches. 

Google has been criticized in the past for its ethics issues. One example was reported in 2010, when Google Books illegally scanned 20 million books for a digital library. This began as a secret project in 2002. Google claims the scanning is covered by fair-use provisions of copyright law. On the other hand, publishers and authors—who filed a $125 million lawsuit against Google Books-- insist Google needed explicit permission from them before making the digital copies. 

It also showed only snippets of the copyrighted books unless permission was given to show more. Though the case was later dismissed, thousands of authors still allege that Google is illegally profiting from their works. 

These are just two of many unethical cases regarding Google. 

Privacy

In October 2013, a federal judge refused to dismiss a potential class-action lawsuit brought by Gmail users who object to its practice of analyzing the content of all messages on its network and selling byproducts to advertisers. Those suing Google said it violated federal wiretap laws. The US District Court Judge held that Google never told Gmail users that Google would create personal profiles and target users with ads. Nor did people who are not Gmail users but who were writing to Gmail addresses agree to let Google collect and parse their message.

This is similar to a 2009 case when Google’s lawyers said its email technology was used for scanning spam, computer viruses and serving ads ‘within the Gmail user’s experience.”

In a different case regarding street view mapping, Google was sued by 38 states after it admitted that its cars outfitted with roof cameras facing four directions weren’t just taking pictures—they were also collecting data form computers inside homes and structures, including “passwords, emails, and other personal information fro unsuspecting computer users.”

Security

There have also been concerns regarding Google’s security. For example, there was a major flaw in Google Chrome, the third most popular web browser at 16% market share, was recently reported, claiming the browser exposed names, email addresses, street addresses, phone numbers, bank account numbers, social security numbers and credit card numbers directly onto your hard drive in plain text without your knowledge or consent.

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"By default Google Chrome stores (web) form data, including data entered on secure websites, to automatically suggest for later use, the article said. “This stored data is unencrypted text and accessible if your computer or hard drive is stolen or is infected with malware."

Additionally, there was a report of Google Chrome and Google Apps confessing that the problem of passwords would continue to plague users and computer security in the foreseeable future. 

In response, Google advised users to turn on a two-step verification system, make sure their browsers are up to date and that their password recovery options are set. 

The Price We Pay

Based on Google’s issues regarding ethics, privacy and security, we can only wonder if our personal information is actually safe. However, in my opinion, using Google is the price we pay for all of Google’s benefits, especially since most of its services are free.

After all, Google is the world’s largest clearinghouse for information so deeply embedded into our daily lives. As one article states: we turn to it for advice on all kinds of things, whether it’s relationships and midlife crises, weekday hangovers and pregnancy symptoms, natural, social and financial disasters, medical information, what to wear on a first date, how to get rid of stretch marks and even how to travel alone. 

Anytime we use Google, we enable it and draw conclusions on who we are and what we care about. 

If we want to truly protect ourselves, we should change our passwords often, make them complex and not share anything we don’t want Google to expose. That’s about all we can do.