"Google knows more about you than your mother."
By Robert L. MitchellMay 11, 2009 12:00 PM ET

"It's easy to understand why privacy advocates and policymakers are sounding alarms about online privacy in general -- and singling out Google in particular.

Google stores tremendous amounts of data about you and your activities on its servers, from the content you create to the searches you perform, the Web sites you visit and the ads you click."

• Google's search engine:
  Google knows what you searched for as well as your activity on partner Web sites that use its ad services.
• Chrome browser: it may know every Web site you've typed into the address bar, or "Omnibox."
• G-Mail has all your e-mail (Google)
• Google Calendar (Google)
• Last known location (Google Latitude).
• It may know what you're watching (YouTube) and whom you are calling.
• ITranscripts of your telephone messages (Google Voice).
• Your photos in Picasa Web Albums, which includes face-recognition technology that can automatically identify you and your friends in new photos.
• And - Google Books, it may know what books you've read, what you annotated and how long you spent reading.

"It is the breathtaking scope of data under Google's control, generated by an expanding list of products and services, that has put the company at the center of the online privacy debate. According to Pam Dixon, executive director at the World Privacy Forum, "No company has ever had this much consumer data" -- an assertion that Google disputes."

Article: Computer World

6 ways to protect your privacy on Google
http://www.computerworld.com/action/articl...rticleId=336607

As of March 11, Google and third parties in its AdSense network are using not just contextual information (what you're searching for) but a history of previously viewed Web pages to serve up targeted advertising. The idea is to serve up ads that are more relevant to your interests.

You can remove interest categories Google has attributed to you or add others by visiting its Ad Preferences page. You can also opt out. To make the opt-out setting permanent, however, you'll need to install a plug-in for each browser you use. It's available for IE, Firefox, Chrome and Safari.
http://www.computerworld.com/action/articl...rticleId=336607

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