Remove your history from Google’s cache of information
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Google knows a lot about you. It knows what sites you visit, they hold your email – they know what you talk about the most and what you search for.
Know your options on how they retain this information.
On March 1st, Google’s new unified privacy policy comes into effect – this means that Google can now use your personal search history to influence the types of targeted ads and recommendations you see, unless of course, you turn it off.
Google, as most corporate entities are wont to do, is being very shady and litigious about this particular type of change.
What they’ve done is pointed to the new privacy policy over and over again, in just about all of their products – touting it’s unified nature and imploring you to please check it out.
It’s a fun change! We’re so happy to unify our privacy policy! The vibe around is just great, isn’t it? They’re being so nice about it too! They’re even making other cursory changes in the visual style of their products to sort of, ease you into the idea that things are changing.
Legally, that’s them putting their best foot forward. If “do no evil” were true, what they’d actually be doing is announcing that they’re going to be using their customer’s search history within their other products, notably their advertising and recommendation engines.
They won’t do that, however, because the legalities around “corporations” as entities allow individuals that work within that type of structure to feel a sense of disconnected anonymity – that way, they can do evil.
Trying to pull the wool over people’s eyes and telling half-truths is evil.
The EFF has instructions on how to remove your web history from Google.
From Google’s perspective, and it’s probably true, all they’re doing is trying to make their products better and more suited to their user’s individual tastes. That’s true, it really is – but what about 10 years from now when the Government and Military decide that Google’s cache of information is in their best interests?
That may or may not happen; the problem is that the data would exist, perhaps not what Google themselves will do with it. Now that it will exist the possibility to exploit it exists. If it doesn’t exist, the possibility to exploit it doesn’t exist.
You should take some time to think about how you feel about that.
