Interesting People mailing list archives
Re: AT&T the Web Spy? -- And Their Big Google Lie
From: David Farber <dave () farber net>
Date: Fri, 15 Aug 2008 15:59:03 -0400
Begin forwarded message: From: "Bob Poortinga" <ip () k9sql us> Date: August 15, 2008 2:34:31 PM EDT To: dave () farber net Subject: Re: [IP] AT&T the Web Spy? -- And Their Big Google Lie This is a reply to an IP posting for IP.
From: Lauren Weinstein <lauren () vortex com> Date: August 14, 2008 6:28:16 PM EDT Subject: AT&T the Web Spy? -- And Their Big Google Lie "Advertising network operators such as Google have evolved beyond merely tracking consumer Web surfing activity on sites for which they have a direct ad-serving relationship. They now have the ability to observe a user's entire Web browsing experience at a granular level." -- Dorothy Attwood, AT&T senior vice president for public policy That second sentence is the kicker -- and is simply untrue. But it's crucial to AT&T's arguments that people *believe* it to be factual. Google does collect a great deal of data across their affiliated networks, via IP addresses, cookies (when enabled by users), and presumably URL referers as well. But this only includes sites somehow affiliated with the Google networks, and/or users who have installed various Google tools and enabled associated site reporting features. But it does *not* otherwise include all visited Web sites. Not by a long shot.
If you are limiting your observation to Google's servers only, this is true.
However, millions of Internet users have installed Google Toolbar in their browsers. Google Toolbar for Internet Explorer is a Browser Helper Object (BHO) and, as such it has access to every URL and web page that the browser displays. I am unsure as how much of this data is uploaded to Google, but, based on my personal knowledge andexperience, the data the Toolbar provides is used by Google to index pages which have no external links. This is how Google indexes the "hidden" web.
As anyone done any research which analyzes the Google Toolbar? -- Bob Poortinga K9SQL Bloomington, IN US ------------------------------------------- Archives: https://www.listbox.com/member/archive/247/=now RSS Feed: https://www.listbox.com/member/archive/rss/247/ Powered by Listbox: http://www.listbox.com
Current thread:
- AT&T the Web Spy? -- And Their Big Google Lie David Farber (Aug 15)
- <Possible follow-ups>
- Re: AT&T the Web Spy? -- And Their Big Google Lie David Farber (Aug 15)
- Re: AT&T the Web Spy? -- And Their Big Google Lie David Farber (Aug 15)
- Re: AT&T the Web Spy? -- And Their Big Google Lie David Farber (Aug 16)
- Re: AT&T the Web Spy? -- And Their Big Google Lie David Farber (Aug 16)