I mean, people who are really afraid of exposing their privacy to Google, they have alternatives!

Imagine it was the government who had access to all the data. Would you feel the same?

Another issue is the idea of someone else gaining access to the data. Every week you read about some other company losing credit card numbers and social security numbers. Or the story is how someone managed to break into a computer database and steal the info. And technology has made it easier to connect all the data points so you might get someone’s address in one place and their credit card details in another.

I think Google gets a bum rap on this simply because of their market share and because they do have access to more data due to that market share. But still they were the only search engine not to hand over user queries to the government and they are the only company anonymizing their data even if it’s not as soon as we’d like.

Google isn’t Mother Theresa like you say, but I’d sooner trust them over Microsoft.

I’d love to see web sites, grocery stores, and phone companies to do more to protect our privacy. But Google was the only search engine to go to court refusing to hand over our search data. Most phone companies gave over their call records without being compelled to do so.

Google isn’t Mother Theresa here, but it’s not Saddam Hussein, either. It seems like a lot of bandwagon hysteria.

Adam I agree, but. If I feel it’s necessary I know how to keep things private, but there’s a lot of info out there and it’s so much easier to connect. I think it generally gets used in essentially harmless ways, mostly to direct more targeted ads at us, which isn’t a bad thing. It’s not just about what you say either.

I don’t really want everything I search for known. Not that there’s anything I’m concerned someone will find out, but I think it’s my business and no one else’s. Also think about all the things like social security numbers and credit card info that’s been stored somewhere. As it becomes easier to connect the data it will be easier for people to get away with using that some of the more sensitive data.

I agree Matt. I think Google is named the worst mostly because it brings the most attention to their report. It is kind of odd that Google seems to be more concerned about privacy and yet the perception is they have the worst record on privacy.

From what i have seen, With googles stand against subpoenas and their option to personalise searches or not, They seem to understand that poor privacy standards is bad for business. And if there’s one thing i know about google, It’s that they are all about the business.

It’s amazing how, with all of the paranoia and BS about how everything needs to be protected, people forget that the simplest form of security is not to give information out in the first place.