Google is FOLLOWing you*
*and not in any good I-am-following-you-on-twitter/tumblr way
Last week I had to write a comment on this Wall Street Journal article on behalf of one of companies walking a tightrope between violating privacy of internet users and complying with EU privacy laws. So guys, tell me, how many of you feel safe surfing internet. Now go and read the article. How many of you feel safe now?
Companies and various webpages have been collecting your data for years now. Even our so beloved Google (actually, especially, Google). All the searches you do while signed in with your Google account are being recorded and follow you from one computer to another. Google account cookies. Awesome. Where is Google milk?
Statistics recording codes on the webpages are old news already. But do you know they can correctly tell not only your exact country and city, but the internet provider, your OS, browser you’re using, whether javascript is enabled etc.
So well, direct marketing profits from this precise and defined anonymity a lot. There is no accident in the ads you happen to see online. Most of them are directed at you personally (that explains all those redtube ads, right?). There still are a lot of holes in EU legislation regarding privacy, most of the laws are beyond outdated (though it’s good to know both EU and USA are working on these issues).
So be careful. I don’t know… Just my two cents on the problem.
