Google Promises Privacy & Data Anonymization for Google Chrome
September 10, 2008 – 11:54 amDoes using a web browser by a company which tracks user web behavior, archives emails & messenger communications and also serves advertising based upon search and browsing behavior scare you a little about what your total browsing experience will be used for?
The notion has some privacy advocates looking for answers, especially exactly how Google will be using this information and incorporating it into their DoubleClick ad serving profile & behaviroal targeting technology.
Sure, Google can give us better search results by understand more about our needs, our intent, our life experience and locations visited; and generally such information enriches the online user experience, but when that same information is used to monetize a free service, well, it’s a bit of a double standard isn’t it?
The Washington Post reports that :
Jane Horvath, Google’s senior privacy counsel, said that the company would be anonymizing the Internet Protocol address and the cookies that track users when they type search terms or Web pages into Chrome’s Omnibox, an all-in-one search and address bar.
She said Google also would anonymize the IP addresses associated with search queries typed in by users into Google’s standard search bar nine months after they have been collected. “This really just illustrates how seriously we do take data anonymization,” Horvath said.
With Google collecting user keystrokes as entered into the Google Chrome Omnibox, but anonymizing that information, the first step in a private web browsing experience? Or will Google just do its best to give the privacy advocates their due and see what it can walk away from in terms of collecting user data.
The scenario reminds me of a poker game or negotiation tactic: Google lies their chips down on the table, the privacy advocates want a bit of say or their place ,the Government may enev bluff a little, but in the end, Google will walk away with their fair share of the chips, so if 5% of keystroke info is minimized to 1%, Google still wins and the privacy advocates still feel important.
