Google is watching you

You want to know who invented Valentine’s Day? Just Google it! You wanna see the new video clip of John Mayer? Go to YouTube! How do I get from Amsterdam to Utrecht? Google Maps is there for you! Curious what the Grand Canyon looks like? Thank God, we have Google Earth. Help, I can’t find that really important document on my computer! I have good news for you: Google Desktop will find it. Sending postcards takes way too long, don’t you think? Use Google Mail (Gmail) and messages will arrive within a second. Isn’t this all just great? Google has a solution for everything. And it is all for free! You think it’s for free? Think again.

Like my mom always says: nothing is for free. Well, moms can be right sometimes, not always, but sometimes. Indeed, nothing is for free. Google wants something back. What? Information. About you. The search terms you type into Google are saved for the next few years, combined with the unique IP-number of your computer. Just think for a minute about what you type into Google. I will wait…

Done yet? Let’s go over it then. So, you probably typed in your own name into Google (Don’t claim you didn’t. Everyone does that, it’s not a crime.) When using Google Maps, you typed in your address. After all, you are leaving from your own home right? Or how about the company you work for or your study? Hobbies, travels, you name it. We Google it and they know, because you told them. Well, at least our Gmail is private. Yeah, I don’t think so. Google scans it.

Why does Google do this, you might think. According to them, Google wants to personalize information. In a few years Google hopes to make it possible to ask the search engine questions like: “What shall I do tomorrow?” or “What job should I take?”.

Don’t get me wrong: I love Google. In fact, it’s my favorite site and I use it for all kinds of things. But these are the stories going around about this company (if you’re interested, you can find them on (where else?!) Google). The question is: do you think this is all true? Or is this just exaggerated gossiping? That’s up to you.

PS. Don’t let this blog scare you to sign up for email updates for my blog. Remember, not everything is what seems and the same holds for these kinds of stories. See you with my next blog!