Google's Privacy Move: Not Nearly Good Enough

Google has finally made a move to protect people's search privacy -- but its actions don't go nearly far enough. Its decision to make search records anonymous after 18 to 24 months is barely a good enough first step.

Google may know more about you than your mother does. The search giant can easily construct a profile of your interests, likes, dislikes, and surfing activities. Every time you do a search, Google tracks your query, your IP address, and cookie information.

At the moment, Google keeps that information forever, which means it's easy for the company to construct a comprehensive profile about you. But more disturbing than that is that government agenices can subpoena that information -- and given the penchant of the current administration for privacy invading, you can figure those subpoenas will be used frequently.

Google now plans to make your search information anonymous after 18 to 24 months. But privacy experts say the plan doesn't go nearly far enough, and I agree.

Kevin Bankston, a staff attorney at the Electronic Frontier Foundation in San Francisco told Computerworld "We'd love to see a shorter retention period and more complete anonymization."

Bankston would like the policy extended to other Google services, such as Gmail.

I hope that this really is just a first step for Google. Private businesses and government agencies know too much about us. Google should follow Bankston's advice.

If you're worried about your search privacy, though, there's plenty you can do, as I outline in my article, Seven ways to keep your search history private.

And if you're worried about keeping all your Web surfing private, see my article, How to surf anonymously without a trace.