Google Personalized Search
A Rising Issue
Google is and has been collecting your information, and in the piece I read they wrote about their own privacy statement. The things they talk about is that they are collecting your information for your own benefit. They claim that they collect your information to make their services better for you. But they have another reason and that is for profit, as any company is around for, to make money. However, the way Google does it is quite frightening. The way it is scary is because they collect your private information and sell it to companies. This is frightening because all your private information is collected by Google and then sold to some outside company.
Good news is they say that the information can be no way connected to you, but thats up to you to beleive that or not. Even though it can’t happen now, we have to make sure that it never happens. Because if Google allows the information to be traced back to you, your own private information could easily be found by someone and they could possibly use it against you in any way. However as long as Google keeps the information safe, then there is not much we need to worry about.
USERS
In today’s day and age everything is fast paced; any shortcut possible is taken. So when Google asks us if we want that password saved for the next time we log on to a site of course we quickly press yes before continuing on with our day, taking very little regard or ever thinking about that little pop-up on our computer. Unfortunately, as convenient as it is, we should think twice about what information of ours Google is storing away in its massive database. And that’s only the tip of the iceberg. Google tracks every single thing we do on the web and stores it away, most of the time without proper consent. All of this is what is known as the Google Personalized Search. Making it quicker easier for computer users across the globe to search the web, but is it worth the risk?
Experts
Tim Jordan, the author of Information Politics Liberation and Exploitation of the Digital Society, doesn't agree with what Google is doing. Jordan talks about the process of recursion which is when information can be applied to itself and run it through a process to produce even more information. Jordan explains this by stating when a person searches for something on Google, “…the information is taken and recursed or taken your information, then added it to everyones else information that might be like you, and decided you're interested in the same kind of search.” Which is why ads pop up that are related to what a person has searched in the past. Tim Jordan also references something called “The Cloud”, which is a space that a person can send files up, a way to take large amounts of data up into the cloud or can also take large amounts of data down from The Cloud.
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While all that is good, flexible, and can make things easier, there is also someone externally running the cloud that can see and use any of the information that goes through The Cloud and the process of recursion can happen again. The question comes about “Why not encrypt the information sent up?”. The answer to that Jordan says is that when a person encrypts information they are automatically a target and looked at as someone that could be dangerous. The government tries to pull as much information as possible and use this process of recursion so they can then use the data to analyze searches. They use the information by searching it to find something like why a person is speaking a different language in a certain country. It is all about national security but how much privacy invasion is too much?
Are You Safe?
Unfortunately for most computer users this doesn’t just affect Google Chrome users, but also Safari and Firefox (Ball 6). Firefox is reported to receive 85 percent of its $163 million annual income from Google in return for providing them with information about what kind of searches its very own users are up to. On the bright side this is not all bad news; one main reason Google teams up with other powerhouses of the industry is to steer people away from harmful websites and places they shouldn’t be going on the internet.
Solutions
Another simple fix or solution we thought of is to show how to to turn off the Google personalized search. While it seeems silly of it to automattically be installed and running, at least there are simple steps to opt out of this feature next time we turn on our computer to surf the web. As this video explains, you can opt out of personalized search while on or off of your own Google account. This video also helps further explain how the personalized search works. From experts.
Because this isnt the most controversial issue, one solution is to simply make sure everyone knows that Google is collecting your information, because if people don’t know about it, then Google could do something bad with the information, and the users would never know. Also we found out that almost 70% of the people surveyed had no clue that Google was collecting their information.
(not so)
FUN
FACTS
85
% of Firefox's total income is from Google
50
Countries worldwide completely visible from Google Street View
20
$Billion in personalized ad revenue
50
% of Google searches deemed "unsecure"
WORKS CITED
 Larry G. MagidMagid, Larry G. "How (and Why) To Turn Off Google's Personalized Search Results." Forbes. Forbes Magazine, n.d. Web. 20 Feb. 2016. Our first source is an article published on Forbes magazine titled “How and Why To Turn Off Google’s Personalized search.” The stakeholder is a user of Google just like any regular person, the only difference is he is slightly more educated about Google and what their personalized search entails. Because of this knowledge, he thinks we as regular users should turn o |  Hannah BallBall, Hannah. "Google Probably Knows More about You than Your Closest Friend." Tri County Times Publishing, n.d. Web. 20 Feb. 2016. Our second source is another article, but this time it is in more of the style of a blog post. The stakeholders name is Hannah Ball, a writer for the tri county times, she too is just a user of Google, and she has no real connection with the company aside from the fact that like most people, she uses the search engine on a fairly frequent basis. She divides her arti |  Randall E. StrossStross, Randall E. Planet Google: One Company's Audacious Plan to Organize Everything We Know. New York: Free, 2008. Print. Our third source is a print source from the library. Although it was published 8 years ago, it has very pertinent information about how Google works still today. Many of the things the book covered were things we all learned about in research, so at the time this information was cutting edge and hot off the press. The author does a great job of staying unbiased but still t |  Google Public Statement“Privacy Policy – Privacy & Terms – Google." Privacy Policy – Privacy & Terms – Google. Google, n.d. Web. 11 Feb. 2016.” This fourth source is a piece written by google in order to give people using their products the reassurance that they are not using the information they collect to sell it and try to make money off of their private information which could possibly be harmful to them. Their target audience for this piece are people who are wondering what Google is using the information they co |  Paul S. PiperPiper, Paul S. "Google and Privacy." Internet References Services Quarterly 4th ser. 10.3 (2005): 195-203. Http://dx.doi.org/10.1300/j136v10n03_17. Routledge Taylor and Francis Group. Web. 26 Mar. 2016. For our fifth source, we used a peer reviewed article found online. Even though the piece was published in 2005, it still gives us great information on what Google may be doing with the information they collect. It also talks about what kind of information is being collected, and where they get i |
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 Daniel J. SoloveSolove, Daniel J. The Future of Reputation : Gossip, Rumor, and Privacy on the Internet. New Haven: Yale UP, 2007. Print. Basically it is a collection of chatrooms, online discussion groups. It explains Google's search saving as a private file on us. Also, it explains the cross roads between free speech and privacy. |  Thomas ClaburnClaburn, Thomas. "Google's Privacy Invasion: It's Your Fault." Dark Reading. N.p., 17 Feb. 2012. Web. 28 Mar. 2016. This article is telling the audience what the Google Privacy policy problems are and also how to turn the setting off. Although the setting can be turned off, there are still ways that it can gather info. |  Tim JordanGoingUndergroundRT. "'Privacy Invasions' & Manipulating Search Results – Tim Jordan on Google." YouTube. YouTube, 04 Mar. 2015. Web. 28 Mar. 2016. This videos is an interview on Tim Jordon regarding what he thinks about Google's privacy policy and how it works. It takes the audience deep into what Google is doing and explains that it almost impossible to combat because they are teamed with governments around the world. |