CAT 125 - Search Engine

I am really impressed about how powerful Google search engine is. But the at the same time, I find it really dangerous. Even though the Internet search engine is trying to help us locate the information in an efficient way, it has grown too deep to our privacy.


The Internet service knows user better than they can imagine. For example, As soon as we begin to watch YouTube videos with a recognizable account, the YouTube website will record our browsing history. And then it will automatically provide other YouTube videos relate to the personal interest. So next time user log-in the YouTube homepage, there will be some videos shown up based on the user interests. In one hand, this is a good thing, a scientist might find other scientists' videos fast; but in the other hand, our browsing history has been used by them. let's think it again in reality, imagine someone bought some dog food from super market, and soon the market would send this buyer's information to other dog food companies; in a few days, this buyer's mail box would be spammed by all kinds of commercials. Is this really the way we want? Probably not.
"Google collects a good deal of information about your query. It records not only what you searched for (when you activate the advanced Toolbar features), but several other pieces of information as well, including the time of day, the type of browser you're running, the language your browser uses, and your IP address. Many times, after giving you a list of Web sites that match your search, Google will also record which sites you actually visited. "Google may choose to exhibit its search results in the form of a 'URL redirecter,'" reads Google's main privacy policy. "When Google uses a URL redirecter, if you click on a URL from a search result, information about the click is sent to Google." From Is Google Invading Your Privacy? by Cade Metz
I think the searching power has been out of control by our own hand at this moment. What we have done has been secretly linked to their server, so our privacy no long exists on the Internet. We might need to rethink about hiding ourselves in this large network, otherwise, our private information will the money in those service providers pocket.