Are You Aware of Online Privacy?
Now this is getting my attention. Privacy International has published a report with title “A Race to the Bottom : Privacy Ranking of Internet Service Companies” on June 9, 2007. This report has attracted a lot attentions especially on the Google side since it is ranked at the bottom one as “Hostile to Privacy” among other companies reviewed, including
- Amazon
- AOL
- Apple
- BBC
- Bebo
- eBay
- Friendster
- Hi5
- Last.fm
- LiveJournal
- Microsoft
- MySpace
- Orkut
- Reunion.com
- Skype
- Wikipedia
- Windows Live Space
- Xanga
- Yahoo!
- YouTube
Being at the bottom for sure does not look good for a company’s image, especially for one as BIG as Google. One day after the report publication, Privacy International published another Open Letter To Google, accuses Google representatives has been telling media that “Privacy International has a conflict of interest regarding Microsoft” and request an apology from Google.
Instead of answering to Privacy International directly, Google responds in their official blog post “How Long Should Google Remember Searches“. Google’s Webspam Team Leader Matt Cutts also wrote about this in his personal blog post “Why I Disagree with Privacy International“.
Regardless of both parties’ arguments, are you aware of the importance of your online privacy? How many online services have you subscribed to? Have you read their privacy policies thoroughly? By now we all know that Google stores searches data, and with Google Toolbar installed, web browsing history is also captured. Same goes to Alexa Toolbar, StumbleUpon Toolbar and many other services.
Compared to personal information, browsing history and search pattern are considered “harmless”(I am not sure now). Personal information is acquired by services with the user’s consent, for example, signing up to a service. Of course you can always use a false identity when signing up to a free service, but what about Google Adsense, your hosting provider, and your ISP, your favorite shopping website?
There is a lot of concerns about online privacy, especially when most of the services are operated by people thousands miles away(considering my geographical location) and face to face communication is never an option.
Be a little paranoid when signing up to services online is my only suggestion, reading the Terms and Conditions is not enough today, make sure you understand the Privacy Policy as well.
Another suggestion is to use Anonymous VPN Service. It helps me to hide ip, surf anonymously and changes my location for everyone over the Internet.
I use VPN Service from: http://www.thebestvpn.com