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What Does Google Know About Us?

eweek.com — Google knows almost everything connected to the Web, but there is one major source of untapped data the company has scarcely touched to date. Can you guess that area? If you cried "e-commerce transactions" you would be right ...

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  • diggboss, on 04/11/2008, -4/+42A few bugs still remain at digg. I submitted this story, the submission process ended with a blank page being shown to me, i refreshed the page 3 - 4 times, the story got submitted 5 times. Look @ my profile
    • diggboss, on 04/11/2008, -2/+17I reported the bug to digg and the digg team has taken care of it, they have also deleted the additional duplicate stories. - Thanks Digg.
    • sirber, on 04/11/2008, -4/+2lol @ your profile
    • Shawn4168, on 04/11/2008, -2/+14Buried as dupe.
  • BuzzDiggity, on 04/11/2008, -1/+35google knows everything!
    • jaybol, on 04/11/2008, -0/+3now that's some ***** america needs buzz diggity! we need robots and computers to spy on us...haven't you seen men in black bro? its for our safety.
      /narf
    • 01001001, on 04/11/2008, -0/+2And Bo don't know *****
      • falkonv7l, on 04/11/2008, -0/+2Bo Jackson that is!...............
    • eigenweasel, on 04/11/2008, -0/+3You needn't have bothered typing that because Google knew that you were about to type it and so entered it into the Google cache for this page shortly before you actually did type it.
  • chrisc3, on 04/11/2008, -4/+10zomgwtfbbq
  • jls33fsls, on 04/11/2008, -0/+5e-commerce transactions!
  • annjay, on 04/11/2008, -1/+5Yes, no doubt google knows everything
  • metanrx2005, on 04/11/2008, -1/+8goggle bigbrother
  • lukatoll, on 04/11/2008, -2/+3yea digg has alot of bugs when it comes to submissions, i hate that.
    • ZeRux, on 04/11/2008, -0/+2But I don't think that disappearing reply button is one of them.
  • frozzenst, on 04/11/2008, -4/+30if google knows everything, and we know that google knows everything, then we know what google knows, consequently, we know everything
    • bucklover, on 04/11/2008, -0/+8now that's just plain dumb. My friend knows everything about particle physics, and I know he knows everything about particle physics, yet somehow I stil don't know everything about particle physics . . . a flaw in logic, perhaps?
      • Zaeboes, on 04/11/2008, -1/+0You know everything about particle physics as long as your friend is next to you to tell you about it constantly. Google is always there for us to ask questions, so by that measure, yes. We do know everything.
        • tutivlahos, on 04/11/2008, -0/+3Can you read others people's emails?
      • coolian, on 04/11/2008, -1/+2I think what he means is that THROUGH Google, we CAN know everything. :-p
      • frozzenst, on 04/14/2008, -0/+2Well, that was kinda ironic, trying to show the irony of the situation.
    • loftbunny, on 04/11/2008, -2/+0So.....is Google like a god then? Who's going to Google church?
    • Nick2632, on 04/11/2008, -0/+4And thus, Stephen Colbert made Google.
  • Odenized, on 04/11/2008, -1/+7I hope it stays this way. Google already knows far to much about our personal lifes and information.
    • meruru, on 04/11/2008, -0/+4They only know too much if you use them for everything. If you are worried about them knowing too much about you don't use gmail, google apps, etc. It's not like they are the only email provider or search engine.
    • staxofmax, on 04/11/2008, -0/+4Part of me is convinced that Google will start blackmailing us by threatening to send our friends and loved ones copies of our search histories.
      • akphidelt, on 04/11/2008, -0/+1I would definitely have to pay up... if my parents saw the things I searched on the Internet, they would dissown me!
      • elementop, on 04/11/2008, -0/+2No, not your entire search history...only the things you went back and deleted later O_o
    • bigfloppydonkey, on 04/11/2008, -0/+2haha, I hope so. But I don't think anyone would be too surprised on what I find :(
  • beetyjoose, on 04/11/2008, -0/+7Google knows all
  • NightcrawlerX, on 04/11/2008, -0/+8100 exabytes of data!!!!
    • falkonv7l, on 04/11/2008, -1/+2Please for to explain exabyte?
      • Zaeboes, on 04/11/2008, -2/+01000 times a petabyte, which is 1000 times a gigabyte.
        • Destroyer159753, on 04/11/2008, -0/+2On a 1000x factor it goes from Gigabyte then to Terabyte, Petabyte, Exabyte, Zettabyte, Yottabyte, etc...
          • falkonv7l, on 04/11/2008, -0/+1Thank you for a simple straight forward explanation, I feared 18 posts of large numbers with decimals and stupid amounts of math.
          • elementop, on 04/11/2008, -0/+2That's a lottabytes.
          • Dylson, on 04/12/2008, -0/+2ITS A GOOGLEPLEX!
  • Gabberwok, on 04/11/2008, -0/+5Who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men?
  • LewP, on 04/11/2008, -0/+10If google wants to follow me around and watch my boring, geeky life, then all I have to say is go for it. by the way, tomorrow I'm going down to the bus station and watch the new luggage come in.
    • NYNewYorker, on 04/11/2008, -0/+2Exactly. Even if you lived an exciting life, who gives a *****, especially an online entity like Google.
  • socialpyramid, on 04/11/2008, -0/+7Hail the coming of Googlezon http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Googlezon
    • truthseeker69, on 04/12/2008, -0/+2Interesting. My bet is that if Google truly does want financial transaction data it would start with eBay/Paypal or bail out one of the manifold failing credit houses... 2 cents. Buy Puts!
  • Dorolicious, on 04/11/2008, -2/+4yikes!
  • Joeprah, on 04/11/2008, -1/+5Google doesn't know everything...I hope?
  • tiggerthedigger, on 09/05/2008, -1/+5Google knows everything!
  • MikeonTV, on 04/11/2008, -0/+4Come get me google!
  • nelsonjs, on 04/11/2008, -1/+4Google, amazing, but scary.
  • itsmattgw, on 04/11/2008, -5/+3it knows i have a fetish for "woman fat black ass large"
  • dannomatic, on 04/11/2008, -3/+17The best trick the devil ever played on man was convincing him he didn't exist.
    • sockpuppets, on 04/11/2008, -0/+9Actually I think it was alimony, but that's a close second.
      • Netrilix, on 04/11/2008, -0/+2"And the judge said 'alimony' but he really meant 'all the money'" - Robin Williams
  • NYNewYorker, on 04/11/2008, -1/+4So what if Google knows everything (you do). How will it change your life or the future of it? Same thing with cameras being everywhere. Yeah. And. So. What. Or is it just the principal that bugs everyone...It's all ***** and it's bad for ya.
  • bstory, on 04/11/2008, -4/+1Google = Elohim
  • fsjenkins2000, on 04/11/2008, -0/+9you think you are searching Google, Google is searching you.
    • rumblebelly, on 04/11/2008, -0/+1In Soviet Russia, Google searches you!

      Sorry, it hat to be said.
  • chungmaster, on 04/11/2008, -0/+12...that I like porn?
  • zen53, on 04/11/2008, -0/+4when they buy skype the'll be able to listen in on me too & i still wont mind do I love google tooo much ?
  • awesometastic1, on 04/11/2008, -0/+7everything
  • digjam, on 04/11/2008, -0/+5Well.. its the websites like Myspace ,Facebook and LinkedInn that know more about you than Google and thats because ppl are stupid enough to put in their names and addresses on these websites! Cant blame Google.
  • Mechmuertos, on 04/11/2008, -0/+4I suspect a majority of their information comes from highly specialized autistic kids with their brains hooked up to computers. But I could be wrong.
  • jobinmartin, on 04/11/2008, -2/+0Not everything, but almost everything.....

    If u login using ur gmail ID then u r caught.....
  • sega01, on 04/11/2008, -3/+5Google knows a lot about humans in general. It knows our desires, hobbies, email contents, some personal information, and could probably take a stab at occupation and education based on our queries. Scary to think that so many of us give that information to one single company.
    • NYNewYorker, on 04/11/2008, -1/+2But WHY is it scary?
      • CJMac, on 04/11/2008, -0/+3Because no one knows what they're going to do with all this information. Whether it'll be sold, or you're going to have people in dark suits knocking on your door after you look at an article on "How to Make Bombs" online. That sort of thing.
        Honestly, its probably not a huge deal - but there are some privacy questions that need to be answered
      • elementop, on 04/11/2008, -0/+3Because there are a lot of people who don't want everyone else (or maybe even "anyone else") to know our desires, our hobbies, our e-mail contents or our personal information.

        For example, suppose you are a public official and you happen to have a puppy porn fetish. You might not want your significant other to know about that. Someone looking to get you to vote a certain way on an upcoming issue might be willing to pay good money to find out about such dirty little secrets.
        Knowledge is power.
  • tehdave, on 04/11/2008, -0/+5Google knows that we know that they know everything.
  • allieg03, on 04/11/2008, -0/+4Google knows that you just said that!
  • ly4u, on 04/11/2008, -4/+1Google is software
  • MrBlackkcalBrM, on 04/11/2008, -0/+2"Google's massive data warehouses, which touched 100 exabytes of data in 2007."
    My god it's full of stars...
  • khail250, on 04/11/2008, -2/+1lets hope that google isnt declared a terrorist and occupied by mr bushy
  • ikesauto, on 04/11/2008, -1/+2Well, since I live under assume identity and use stolen CC I guess I'm covered....
  • TotalDouche, on 04/11/2008, -0/+2I'd rather they know stuff about me so that they don't serve up ads about diabetes medication, life insurance, hoverounds, children's toys, hanna montana, etc.
  • loftbunny, on 04/11/2008, -0/+1Can I be Google's sidekick? Please?
  • williamsba, on 04/11/2008, -0/+1Google Analytics track all of our transactions on our retail site
  • 2shae, on 04/11/2008, -0/+1It doesn't really matter that much that they are tracking people since, they don't know everyone personally anyway...all the have is data of millions of unkown people.
    • ikesauto, on 04/12/2008, -0/+1as well as their emails, addresses, name, phone number....(its on any credit card form in which they track)
      the point is that the CC forms are "secure with https: and google spiders are not alowd to enter those pages. I have a shoping site and on my stats I cansee the google spider entrances to the secure pages.
  • tripledjr, on 04/11/2008, -0/+3I farted then searched "Most recent human fart" and surely enough there was a video of me farting.
  • Lazdude, on 04/11/2008, -2/+0These days you can't do anything online without being spied on, but as long as your info isn't abused there isn't much cause for concern.
  • falkonv7l, on 04/11/2008, -2/+3I for one welcome our Google overloards
  • raycaster, on 04/11/2008, -0/+1Google does know more about me than I know about myself. I started getting ads for hemorrhoid cream. 3 hours later? You guessed it. I got cancer.
    • kday, on 04/12/2008, -2/+2Was that supposed to be funny? If you wanted to be funny, you should have said something that would result in the need for hemmorhoid cream. Hemmorhoids aren't cancer, they are just dilated blood vessels in your *****. Next time, try something like this:

      "Google does know more about me than I know about myself. I started getting ads for hemorrhoid cream. 3 hours later? You guessed it. I got ass *****."
  • crackpatch, on 04/11/2008, -0/+1All your search are belong to them?
  • terajoule, on 04/11/2008, -2/+1Now if google would open an auction site and integrate it with google checkout, ebay would finally have serious competition. Then google would truly control the internets.
    • ePuck, on 04/11/2008, -0/+3The ONE time I used google checkout I got ripped off. I got no goods for my money. Good thing it was only $20. I talked to google and they said "well we did everything right on our end. The money changed hands and our job is done"
  • colin8651, on 04/11/2008, -1/+3If you use gmail as your primary email client, google toolbar with the web page call back feature enabled and google desktop running on your computer, I would bet google knows more about you than you know about yourself.

    With the kind of power they have, they have to have the "Don't do Evil" slogan. I just hope John Conner can't save us before it is too late. Until then, google on.
  • LOVEANDEQUALITY, on 04/11/2008, -0/+2i hope thy know i like APPLE AND NINTENDO WII AND THE NINTENDO DS AND UBUNTU!
  • ANTworkstudio, on 04/12/2008, -1/+0I wonder... if you succomb to Google and the entrapments they provide, doesn't that in turn, lead to your private information becoming public? I'm running a business and Google is part of it. I can't deny the force they present. Eventually they will know where I walk, breathe, and how many Coca-Cola's I drink... does this worry me? Yes. Can I do much about it... at this time my answer is a clear "No."
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