Below is the segment of my House testimony on Internet privacy where I list the exceptional depth and breadth of intimate (potentially blackmail-able) information that Google routinely collects and stores about you with their "unauthorized-web-surveillance" of Internet users - even users who have no idea Google is tracking/stalking them.
"Consider the depth and breadth of intimate information Google collects:
o What you search for;
• (a Ponemon Institute survey of 1,000 Google users found that 89% thought that their searches were private and 77% thought Google searches could not reveal their personal identities – wrong on both accounts.)
o Where you go on the web;
• Google has pervasive unauthorized-web-surveillance capability (web tracking/stalking) through a combination of Google’s search, Google’s cookies, DoubleClick’s ad-view recording capability, Google’s extensive content affiliate network of hundreds of thousands of sites, and the wide variety of Google apps.
o What you watch -- through YouTube;
• (Remember Supreme Court nominee Robert Bork was politically attacked for the videos he rented.)
o What you read -- through Google News, Feedburner and Blogger.
o What you say -- in your emails through gmail’s automated reader.
o What you produce -- in Google Docs or spreadsheets.
• (In return for the free Google Apps like Docs and spreadsheets, users grant Google some search rights in perpetuity to any content a user produces using Google’s Apps.)
o What your family and friends look like -- through Picassa images.
o Your medical conditions, medications, and medical history -- through Google Health.
o Your purchase habits -- through Google Checkout.
o Your call habits and voiceprint -- through Google Talk.
o Your travel habits and interests -- via Google Maps.
o Your interest in other people/places -- via Google Earth & StreetView.
o Your personal information -- through Orkut (social networking) Gmail, Google Checkout, etc.
o Where you go/hang out -- through Google wireless ventures and Android.
o Where you’ll be or where you were -- through Google Calendar.
The scale and scope of Google’s unauthorized-web-surveillance is truly Orwellian “Big Brother.” While Google is not the Government, all this private information that Google collects and stores is certainly available to the Government via subpoena.
• It is also important that this capability of Google’s is very different from Microsoft reach because as a software provider, your private information mostly resides on your PC where you control it.
o In stark contrast, all of the private information listed above that Google collects resides on Google’s servers.
