Latest posts by Pat Tate (see all)
- Email Scanning and Cookies - January 30, 2012
- Is Internet Technology Creating a Nation of Recluses? - November 9, 2011
- The Article Marketing Debate - September 21, 2011
Doing so means you get exposure to thousands and thousands of other CommentLuv users and your posts get sent out to the massive subscriber list.
Google loves this site and indexes it multiple times per day and posts always get lots of comments so you can be sure of some excellent exposure.
See the Write For Us page for more details
btw.. you can get this author box here
Email Scanning and Cookies: The Dangers of Computer Memory
At least once, while searching the Internet, perhaps looking for the best food processor or the scoop on belly putters, you have typed some innocent word into your Google toolbar only to be brought to a list of sites that have nothing to do with what you are looking for. Instead of finding your information, you are bombarded with Google AdWords trying to sell you magazine subscriptions-or worse.
Recently, studies have shown that over half of the results from the most popular search engine are putting Internet users at risk by derailing their simple searches and bringing them not to what they are intended to find, but instead to a host of other sites riddled with often dangerous spyware. Internet users and privacy advocates are less than pleased. Irate is a more suitable term.
If you’re not technically savvy, you may wonder how with a simple keyword search for recipes you find yourself landed on a page selling home health products or whatever else. Google is the culprit. You help them along every time you enter a keystroke into your menu bar. Computers have memories that far outshine the human recall capabilities.
Cookies Convenience Verses Spying
Every computer has what is known as cookies. These are small text files each of which has a unique identification tag that is placed on your computer every time you visit a website. Individual websites save your tags and store your information including any personal data you enter and the websites you have recently visited. This is why if you visit one site and weeks later you visit it again, it remembers you. Cookies stored in your computer are usually installed automatically and while some are deleted after you visit some websites (temporary cookies), others can remain on your computer for an infinite amount of time (permanent cookies). Cookies themselves are in essence, trying to be helpful. By remembering sites you visit, they should make your browsing easier; they also remember your accounts and passwords to sites like Facebook and save you the trouble of having to log in and out all the time.
Tracking cookies is a different story. These cookies stay on your computer for months and sometimes years and monitor every keystroke you make. They keep a running tally of every website you visit and how often. Some create a kind of play sheet of your browsing patterns and will sell your ID or browsing profile to myriad advertising agencies whose goal it is to sell you their products. Cookies create free advertising for these agencies.
Who Reads Your Email? Could It Be Google?
Another issue of contention is your personal email. Sure, it is password protected but that does not mean no one is reading it. In fact, if you have a Gmail account you better believe yours are not the only eyes scanning whatever information is in there. Gmail automatically scrutinizes and investigates every email, intently searching for keywords that can be linked to ads. Friends and family members who do not even have accounts with Gmail are at risk as well-everything they are sending you through your account is being pried into.
Google powers that be claim that all emails received or sent are kept for 60 days and then automatically deleted. Any email you keep in your inbox will be there until you decide to delete it. Once you do, it goes into your trash file where it stays for another 30 days. Then it is deleted
Gmail and Google+ Connected?
Google would not be the power house that they are if they didn’t know what they were doing. It seems like everywhere you go on the Internet, Google is there waiting for you like an old friend at a reunion. Google is delicately weaving themselves with affiliates. We saw this in 2011, when Gmail and Google Plus were integrated. You may have even noticed that some or all of your contacts from one were already conveniently stored to the other. What you initially may have thought was a commodious thing for them to do, may have been a little shadier and self-serving. This also occurs if you or someone you are talking to utilizes their Buzz service. Essentially, they are listening in on every word being said, filtering and latching on to keywords that they will use later down the road by way of nifty ads that will pop up when you least expect them.
In spite of Google promising their customers that their privacy was of the utmost importance, it wasn’t long before Google, through Buzz was automatically storing your email contacts and allowed them to be visible to all your friends. Soon, everyone had access to your email account, and consumers went crazy. Again, smart talking Google executives defended their actions, citing that if consumers simply adjusted their privacy tabs and settings, it wouldn’t be an issue. Unfortunately, few users were aware of this prior to the damage being done. Google walked away Scott free.
When Google decided they wanted a piece of the much profitable Facebook pie, it created its own social network, Google Plus; and also created a host of new problems. Much like other social networks there is an option to re-share posts and comments. Although users have to manually enter in their contacts and can choose with whom they share these posts, there is only one way for the initial user to control who their friends re-share that information with and it is inconvenient. For this to happen, the initial user first has to share the post. Then they must use the disabling re-sharing option every time. Few users are advantageous enough to do this or remember to.
See Yourself on Google View
Finally, the most disconcerting privacy escapade to date happened when Google, in its infinite wisdom spawned Google View, allowing users to explore any place around the world with a 360 degree view. Although advertised as a way to check out new places like that new trendy restaurant, it is not so subtly, a way for anyone to eavesdrop on anyone else. In 2007, Google themselves were caught in a windstorm when they inadvertently caroused around streets in vans, snapping pictures of pedestrians and then having the audacity to publish them online for the world to see. Lawsuits ensued, but once again Google’s hands remained clean as the judicial system forged that this act, albeit an invasion of privacy, could not be deemed illegal. Google answered back with an invitation for scorned users to report their issues and concerns and they would be handled internally.
Is There a Solution?
In short of not going online or refusing to use Google apps, there is little you can do to protect yourself and personal information. The best course of action to take is to remove the cookies on your hard drive, and do it daily. This will clean out your hard drive and stored information in it. To do this simply go to your “settings tab” scroll down and click on “view files.” This will bring up all temporary files and more importantly, your cookies. Click on “delete” (make sure the cookies box is checked) and in a few minutes your memory will be wiped clean. It is also a good idea to go to your “privacy settings” tab and enable the “block cookies” option.
