I am surprised at how well Google target me with ads. It's like they are following me and to think of it, they are really.

1) My online searches are stored with them, for like 3 years?
2) Nearly the whole web is dominated by Adsense, and I would assume it logs my clicks
3) Most sites have Google Analytics installed. Analytics would not only log the information for the owner of that website but probably goes into my history with them.
4) Their algorithm read my Gmail emails and not only deliver targeted Gmail ads but probably also goes into their central database about me.

BBC recently ran a news about how our life are been watched, not only by credit-card companies but also by our mobile phone operators. Our phones give away our location every minute even though we are on stand-by.

And to top it off, we don't know if these companies are sharing information.

I just saw the owner of Facebook on BBC being sued for the same thing.

I am surprised at how well Google target me with ads. It's like they are following me and to think of it, they are really.

1) My online searches are stored with them, for like 3 years?
2) Nearly the whole web is dominated by Adsense, and I would assume it logs my clicks
3) Most sites have Google Analytics installed. Analytics would not only log the information for the owner of that website but probably goes into my history with them.
4) Their algorithm read my Gmail emails and not only deliver targeted Gmail ads but probably also goes into their central database about me.

BBC recently ran a news about how our life are been watched, not only by credit-card companies but also by our mobile phone operators. Our phones give away our location every minute even though we are on stand-by.

And to top it off, we don't know if these companies are sharing information.

It was known from the beginning that google would be storing ALL your data. when you signed up for gmail you agreed to that too. including using your email for search indexing.

This is the entire reason for gmail to begin with

Google == The Complete dominance. I normally be away with some google products.

It was known from the beginning that google would be storing ALL your data. when you signed up for gmail you agreed to that too. including using your email for search indexing.

This is the entire reason for gmail to begin withI am not crying foul or scared yet. I knew about data-mining but didn't realise the extent until now. It is so vital for Google future to hold on to our records even though civil liberties group have voiced concerns about it's potential mis-use.

Obviously they're doing a terrible job. I've trained myself to ignore advertisements.

It was known from the beginning that google would be storing ALL your data. when you signed up for gmail you agreed to that too. including using your email for search indexing.

This is the entire reason for gmail to begin with

Wow, was that in the 7 page Eula that I skipped because it was filled with lawyer speak?

And I like the setup of google mail soo much better than AOL as well...

Ours are very well targeted but we are a specialized forum.

Wow, was that in the 7 page Eula that I skipped because it was filled with lawyer speak?

And I like the setup of google mail soo much better than AOL as well...

Nope and there were numerous reports around the web about it when it happened.

I'm not dissing Google about it. I use gmail exclusively now. But I'm not concerned with the things I say in emails. Nothing to worry about. If I was doing illegal stuff I spose I'd be concerned. but I highly doubt if Google is interested in my business emails and the occaisional "I love you" between my wife and me :)

I'm a little surprised that anyone could not know this though. There was a HUGE story a few years back about google being forced in court to hand over all emails from a man to his mistress. Including emails he had deleted over a year prior. They were used in court against him in his divorce

I now feel that my computer is 110% owned by google and not me.

I dunno what the big deal is.
I use google for seaching and email.

I really dont care if they logged what i searched for.

*raise your hand if you think google made gmail because they love us*


NO - As with everything you can trace it back to money. Google made gmail to make money because they sell more ads and have more information about you. Somewhat common sense if you think about it.

For my oppinion it is not a big deal to let those info get by Google. coz there is not something important :p ut I seldom use Gmail, basically I am using Yahoo mail

I have a forum in Romanian about Morrowind (a game). Even if we do understand english more than OK since we were able to play it and there are sites in english for morrowind, it would display romanian ads totally irrelevant. I got sick of this .. I think I'll not use adsense too much anymore. Am not pleased with it on revenue side either

It crawls your website before targeting ads to your site !