I am using Google for a few years now and I think a lot of people have in common with me. But I noticed something news. I think Google follows us. Let me explain. Google is everywhere and every time I am on the internet Google is watching my websites because I am logged in onto my Google account. So every URL, every image, every word I read, they can read too. In my opinion there is nothing wrong with that, you even have the choice too disagree with it by unchecking the box in the settings section of your account.

There will be many people who think Google is chasing you for something bad. But I experienced the opposite. Google helps you when they are following you. They can see your interests based on your searches and they will note them. The good thing of all this is, that you will get search results which do better fit with you. The results you get will be measured by their experiences of your thoughts. And THAT sounds quite interesting.

But that is just the start of. Actually, there are expanding meanwhile. They already got an service for your Gmail called, Priorty Inbox, which shows you the important mail first based on your actions of opening certain mails in front of others.

Another interesting feature from Google, which is also very lucrative, is showing you the advertisements that suit you. Also based on the websites you visit. For example, I have bought a computer recently, but I had to search a lot all over the internet to choose the right one. Google followed me and now, when I am watching a YouTube video, I see ads from the website I have searched for choosing my computer.

Google is smart and they use it to help people and they get also rich with it. I think it is brilliant. And the best thing I do not mind either that Google is getting rich with my thoughts, because they are helping me with an easier life. That IS brilliant.         Placed by Sjoerd van Hoof ⁠ ⁠ at 18:04

Anyone would be scared by the reported personal data scooping operation at Google. Imagine being in your library at home, reading or composing an e-mail, entering sensitive data into a form online, surfing the web, or making credit card payments, and every bit of data you enter is captured into a database owned by Google. And all of this is happening without your knowledge and definitely without your permission. Of course, the internet giant has been dragged to court by the United States government, numerous countries, and the European Union for this transgression, but is the litigation really consoling? Hardly!

The collection of the personal data of everyday people is the second known major privacy violation activity that Google has been accused of engaging in over the past few years. The first accusation pertains to the manner in which the company beat the security of Apple’s browser Safari by using special computer codes to install tracking files and bypassing the privacy settings that Apple had developed in the device for the protection ofApple phone users. Millions of innocent Apple customers were reported affected by Google’s expedition.

At the centre of the data scooping activity is the engineer (Mr. Marius Milner) that is alleged to have written the data scooping code. According to Google, the data scooping operation was only a byproduct of the designated project, and was not authorized by the company. Google also claimed ignorance of the existence of such an activity. The Street View project, as the original legitimate assignment was dubbed, pertains to an undertaking to photograph and map the world’s streets. Basically, Google dispatched hundreds of vehicles to photograph city streets all over the world. This was to enable folks using Google maps to view complete images of the location. It also had the objective of gathering data on local wireless networks for the purpose of improving Google search. (Yes, it was all about competitiveness.) According to New York Times journalists Amir Efrati and Don Clark, “an aspect of the project that wasn’t generally known at the time was Google’s collection of data about individual wireless networks, including those in people’s homes. The data, among other things, has been used to help Google figure out the precise location someone using a smartphone powered by the company’s Android software.” Mr. Milner was implicated in leading the collection of the unencrypted information sent from homes by computers as specially equipped automobiles drove by.

The New York Times journalists Steve Lohr and David Streitfeld pointed out that “Google long maintained that Mr. Milner was solely responsible for this aspect of the project, which resulted in official investigations, some still unresolved in more than a dozen countries. But a complete version of the FCC’s report has cast doubt on that explanation, saying that the engineer informed at least one superior and that seven engineers who worked on the code were all in a position to know what was going on.” The FCC report was also said to have had the engineer “spelling out his intentions quite clearly in his initial proposal,” but that the managers on the Street View project said they never read it!

According to Efrati and Clark, “Google denied that it was collecting private data from Wi-Fi users, but it reversed itself the following month. It said it had learned that data had been collected from unprotected Wi-Fi networks and attributed the activity to a single Google engineer.” However, the FCC report contends that the plan to gather data was intentional.

As it turns out, Mr. Milner is a real gem in computer programming for telecoms. He joined Google in 2003, prior to which he was employed at Lucent Technologies and Avaya, both of which are telecom and networking companies. Mr. Milner also created a program called “NetStumbler” which Mr. Milner’s LinkedIn page describes as “the world’s first usable ‘Wardriving’ application for Windows.” The New York Times article quoted the FCC report as noting that wardriving is “the practice of driving streets and using equipment to locate wireless local-area networks, using Wi-Fi, such as wireless hot spots at coffee shops and home wireless networks.”

Lohr and Streitfeld pointed out that “locating and communicating effectively with Wi-Fi networks is an essential capability for mobile computing. It is an important tool in smartphone software like Google’s Android, Apple’s iOS, and Microsoft’s Windows Phone, both for communicating and often for location-based services like shopping guides and Foursquare, a mobile application that shows users when friends are nearby.” Moreover, “data beamed from wireless networks guide those location services.” The journalists also said that “according to industry executives and analysts, there are different approaches to using Wi-Fi transmission. The minima approach, they say, is to collect data on the access point and strength of the signal. That is the equivalent of the Wi-Fi network saying, ‘Here I am, and here’s what I can do.”

An issue is whether minimal data is sufficient or Google’s approach of grabbing an exorbitant amount of data is required. A rival to Google in this technology, Skyhook Wireless, feels that minimal data is sufficient, based on their formal research.

Finally, Mr. Quentin Hardy, also a New York Times journalist, is more sympathetic towards Google. He suggests that Google is doing all these “evil” things in order for the company to not “miss the train.” One thing is certainly clear about Google, whether or not it loses the cases in the court of law: it needs a new tag line. “Don’t Be Evil” is no longer appropriate. The company might also be losing out in the court of social responsibility.