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June 03, 2007
What Google knows
What Google knows: At Mashable, Adam Ostrow lists out ten optional services people use, where Google stores their personal data... "the company knows more about you than you might be aware of." The list includes Gmail, your contacts list, your finances, your daily schedule. It doesn't include other less-optional data you generate, such as your Google search history, and the websites with Google advertising that you visit. To me, Google's hyperintegration of personal data feels very similar to Microsoft's hyperintegration of software code ten years ago... lots of people actually thought that letting a strangers' email invoke an ActiveX Control was a good thing, or at least wouldn't really be a harmful thing. Adam's list is a shocking example of how deeply some people expose their personal lives to a single proprietary data owner.
Posted by JohnDowdell at June 3, 2007 09:50 AM
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Related: While researching the above I didn't quickly see any AdSense-blocking Google extensions, but Amit Agarwal has a listing of redirects for your HOSTS file. I'm ambivalent about viewing a site without giving them their revenue, but I'm very uncomfortable with the increasing centralization of cross-site tracking.
Posted by: John Dowdell at June 3, 2007 10:07 AM
AdBlock seems popular: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/1865
But, if you're that worried you might as well just turn off JavaScript all together. Someone who is using AdSenese is also probably using Analytics, or a similar JavaScript stats package (Clicky, CrazyEgg, etc...)
Kevin
PS: Failing comments after hitting "Preview" because the Security code disappeared kinda sucks...
Posted by: Kevin at June 3, 2007 03:40 PM