Tracking users

Google is a privately-owned US company that has a policy of collecting as much information as possible about everyone who uses its search tool.

It will store your computer's IP address, the time/date, your browser details and the item you search for.

It sets a tracking cookie on your computer that does not expire until 2038.

This means that Google builds up a detailed profile of your search terms over many years.

Google probably knew when you last thought you were pregnant, what diseases your children have had, and who your divorce lawyer is.

It refuses to say why it wants this information or to admit whether it makes it available to the US Government for tracking purposes.

And the much-loved Google toolbar tells Google about every web page you look at.

Yet it so dominates the search engine market that no website can afford to ignore it, and it indexes so much of the web that few users think of using another.

The way it ranks pages is a commercial secret, outside any external supervision or control.

If Google decides it does not like you then you can be dropped from the index.
2:12:05 AM