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As the world's biggest search and ad-broker company, Google has drawn its share of criticism and concern about the privacy of its users. Its privacy policy was revised on October 14 2005. Additionally, privacy info about various Google services was made also available.

Information collected by Google

Google uses a unique cookie for each browser used by an individual user on a computer. This cookie contains information which allows Google to identify records about that user on its database. This cookie is submitted every time a user does a Google search, visits a site using AdSense etc. The information stored in Google's database, which is identified by the cookie, includes

• Everything you search for using Google
• Every web page you visit that uses Google Analytics scripts
• Every web page you visit that has Google Adsense ads on it
• Every Blogger page you visit

If you have an Adsense account, the following will also be stored

• Your full name, address and bank account details
• The IP address of everyone who visits your pages with Adsense ads on them
• The number of visitors to each of your pages with Adsense ads on them

If you use a Gmail account

• Content and addresses of emails and Usenet posts you send or receive in an Gmail account

If you're a member of orkut

• Your online social network, interests and groups

As well as

• Purchases in Froogle
• Posts through Blogger
• Which news groups you read through Google Groups
• Locations you visit in Google Earth and Google Maps

Other information is submitted by Google's utilities, such as Google Bar.

Google's Stated Policies

• Google collects personal information when users register for a Google service or otherwise voluntarily provide such information.
• Google may combine personal information collected from users with information from other Google services or third parties to deliver customized content.
• Google's servers automatically record information when users visit their website or use other Google products, including the URL, IP address, browser type and language, and the date and time of the user request.
• Google may use personal information for auditing, research and analysis to operate Google services.
• Google may share aggregated non-personal information with third parties outside of Google that abide by Google's privacy policy.
• Google may also share information with third parties in limited circumstances, including when complying with legal process, preventing fraud or imminent harm, and ensuring the security of our network and services.

The complete privacy statement can be read online .

Criticism

The main criticisms concerning privacy are:

• The cookie's expiration date is set to January 17, 2038, 2:14:05 PM
• There is no way a user can access or delete aggregated search query and click-through information kept by Google. Gmail messages and personalized histories may be deleted on demand, but are retained for 60 days for data recovery and legal compliance.
• There is no expiration/deletion policy for user information.
• There is no disclosure what the information is used for, e.g. target ads, targeted offers in affiliated shopping sites or targeted search results.

Google maintains that

We use cookies to improve the quality of our service and to better understand how people interact with us. Google does this by storing user preferences in cookies and by tracking user trends and patterns of how people search.

It is possible to delete the Google cookie at any time; however a new cookie and new records will be created the next time you visit Google or use a Google affiliated service. For each web-browser, on each computer you use, a different copy of the cookie will be stored, possibly referring to different records in the Google database.

Legal disputes

In early 2006, the US Department of Justice filed a motion in federal court to force Google to comply with a subpoena for "the text of each search string entered onto Google's search engine over a one-week period (absent any information identifying the person who entered such query)." Google resisted the subpoena and fought the motion, partially due to concerns about users' privacy. In March 2006, the court ruled partially in Google's favor, recognizing the privacy implications of turning over search terms.

See also

• History of Google: Criticism and controversy
• Googlezon

External links

• Google's own Privacy Center
• Conti, G; Googling Considered Harmful; New Security Paradigms Workshop, October 2006.

• Google