It’s this information that gives Google its advertising superpower. By linking that information to an IP address and an associated Google account, a complete profile of a person can be assembled. Google uses its Analytics product, along with others, to determine a user’s browsing path around the internet. Users can delete these cookies from their computers, but the cookies are updated every time a Google service is used. There is no information in the company’s privacy policy as to whether or not records about your search or web history are deleted from its records. That information is also linked to any Gmail accounts that have logged in on your device. This cookie gives Google information about the websites the person visits, and their search history. CookiesĮvery time a user searches with Google, they receive a cookie in their computer. Because Google is so large, their data protection has no room for error. While .05% seems incredibly small, .05% of 1 billion users is still 500,000 people. Back in 2009, there was a bug in Google docs that potentially leaked .05% of all documents stored in the service. Google has done well historically, with its data security practices.
Google holds an estimated 15 exabytes of data, or the capacity of ~30 million personal computers. The data collection extends to Google’s entire suite of products, meaning the amount of data the company stores is enormous. In its privacy policy, the company outlines its broad and far-reaching data collection. Within Google’s range of products, there are seven with at least one billion users. The only way to really protect its users is to make whole swaths of data off-limits by default.Google’s parent company, Alphabet, has a market cap of $712 billion. In reality, Google knows very few people use its controls, and even 18 months is a very long time.
Starting in 2019, Google began offering users a setting to retain certain data for select periods of time rather than infinity, and in 2020 it made the default 18 months. “We’ve long focused on minimizing the data we use to make our products helpful and on building tools that allow people to control and delete data across our platforms,” emailed spokesman Matt Bryant. Google didn’t make an executive available for an interview. That means whatever Google does next, it can’t remain neutral - and will set the tone for how the entire industry balances our rights with the business imperative to grab more data. Across all topics, it received more than 40,000 subpoenas and search warrants in the United States in the first half of 2021 alone. The sheer volume of Google’s surveillance also makes it likely the most attractive police target. Just one example: For much of this year in the United States, Google searches for “Am I pregnant?” have outranked “Do I have covid?” Searches for the emergency contraceptive drug “Plan B” far outnumber both combined. Other Big Tech companies facilitate data grabs, too: Facebook watches you even when you’re not using it, Amazon’s products record you, and Apple makes it too easy for iPhone apps to track you.īut in many ways, Google’s reach into the life of a person seeking reproductive health information is unrivaled. In the past week, many concerned patients have focused on the privacy practices of period-tracking apps, which store reproductive health data. Of course, Google isn’t alone in collecting intimate information. “We the users want Google to delete our intimate data.
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