Tuesday Tech: Google Privacy Changes

Once upon a time  a new search engine blast onto the internet world. Simple, Very simple. Fast. Very Fast.

Google revolutionized on line searching so much that its very name became part of our vocabulary in the same way as Hoovering and Xeroxing. Then Google rolled out maps, bought YouTube and took on Blogger.com. It rolled out a picture program Picasa. Gmail, Google Calendar and a web browser Chrome followed. Google had moved from simple search engine to complex empire. Then came Google+ aimed right at the heart of the Facebook empire.

Now the Google empire has been "simplifying" and "integrating". The major change was on March 1, 2012 when Google changed its privacy policies. Officially the idea was to amalgamate 60 of its 70 privacy documents into one main Privacy Policy covering all of their different products and services. Here is a video explaining the changes.

The privacy policy integration was not all that has changed.  Effective March 1, Google can collate information it collects across all of its  services to create a complete picture of you. What you search for, the places you look up on Maps and the videos you watch on YouTube are all tracked centrally. Previously, that information was kept  separate. From The Official Google Blog: Our recently launched personal search feature is a good example of the cool things Google can do when we combine information across products. Our search box now gives you great answers not just from the web, but your personal stuff too. 



This means that Google can learn from your web history and search data, such information as your Location, Holiday destinations, Interests, hobbies, Age, gender, sexual orientation, religion and health issues and more.

This is the issue that has galvanized the most reaction. According to a recent Pew survey,  65 per cent of users said it was a bad thing if a search engine collected information about searches and then used it to rank future search results. An even larger 73 per cent said they would not be OK with a search engine keeping track of searches and personalising future search results because they felt it was an invasion of privacy.There has been a suggestion that the Changes are in breach of European law. The changes to Google's privacy policies, which took effect on March 1, sparked concern among 36 state Attorneys General who wrote a letter to Google CEO.

Google has attempted to sell its users on its newly changed privacy policy with a marketing campaign on and offline. Google says it's doing so to make its policies easier to understand--something regulators have pushed for--and to improve the Google user experience by making information from one Google service available to other Google services that might benefit from that data.

What I have done and what can you do:

1.  Go to Google dashboard and log in to see what data Google has on you. You may be surprised: http://www.google.com/dashboard/
2. While there,  disable your Web History.
3. Use duck duck go  http://duckduckgo.com/ as a search engine. It provides a clean interface together with a no-tracking privacy policy
4. Stop using Google Chrome as a browser- instead opting for Opera or Firefox
5. Visit Google's Ad Preferences Page and opt out of personalised advertising

Good luck

They are Watching Me

I just learnt something about my Iphone that I am not sure I wanted to know.

I use my iPhone to check into places with Four Square. I know that when I take a picture that the IPhone "tags" the picture with my location information. I know that the GPS can track wherever I am with the phone.

I did not know that my IPhone keeps a record of every cell phone/Mobile phone tower that it receives a signal from. From the day I switched it on, it has recorded where I am.

On top of that, my IPhone records that information and saves it. In addition, that information can be downloaded from my phone to ANY and EVERY computer it syncs with.

Peter Warden and Alasdair Allan,  "data scientists" discovered this whilst doing research and announced it this week. They describe the situation in this blog post saying: "our iPhone, and your 3G iPad, is regularly recording the position of your device into a hidden file. Ever since iOS 4 arrived, your device has been storing a long list of locations [latitude and longitude] and time stamps. "
I decided to check it out using a tool they they have developed called iPhone tracker. Sure enough here's my world map of all my activity since July, 2010  (I could not get my IPhone to work on my last Middle Eastern trip).

 I use three different mobile phone carriers- Tmobile in the USA/Canada, 3 in Australia and 2degrees in NZ. The system keeps tracking me no matter what. Warden and Allan note that "only the iPhone records the user's location in this way"
They add: "We're not sure why Apple is gathering this data, but it's clearly intentional, as the database is being restored across backups, and even device migrations." 

This is the picture of my cell phone usage in Australia and New Zealand since July, 2010:

"By passively logging your location without your permission, Apple have made it possible for anyone from a jealous spouse to a private investigator to get a detailed picture of your movements." Take a look at my city: Melbourne on 7th October, 2010". I had a busy day in Geelong (a city west of of Melbourne), the downtown and Eastern suburbs of Melbourne . I think the clumps in the west occurred in my travel out to Geelong. I can even zoom down to my house!

The scarey thing is that I gave Apple permission to track this. In their terms and conditions for  iTunes program (which is pages long) there is a paragraph about "location-based services" which says "Apple and our partners and licensees may collect, use, and share precise location data, including the real-time geographic location of your Apple computer or device. This location data is collected anonymously in a form that does not personally identify you and is used by Apple and our partners and licensees to provide and improve location-based products and services. For example, we may share geographic location with application providers when you opt in to their location services."

The good news is the researchers said that at this stage, the data "does not seem to be transmitted to Apple itself".

If you want to encrypt your data, here advice on how you can do it.