The Inquirer posted: One the Charlie Rose television show, Facebook CEO Mark Zukerberg defended his company’s privacy record by saying it isn’t as bad as other tech giants. “If you look at companies, whether it’s Google or Yahoo or Microsoft, that have search engines and ad networks, they also have a huge amount of information about you,” he said.
Mark is absolutely correct and I applaud him for saying it in his highly publicized position. Facebook asks you for information by inquiring about your High School, College, Grad School, family members, etc. Facebook users, including myself fill out this information and give it to Facebook, knowing that we have just typed this information into Facebook’s database. Everything we post and update on Facebook we voluntarily put there; however, Microsoft, Yahoo, Google and the rest of the giants collect everything about you behind your back. Let’s look at Google, the worlds largest search engine giant. When you search on Google’s Search Engine every keyword or phrase is saved on their database with your IP address; OK so you don’t think IP addresses are that big of a deal huh? Your Google Wallet, YouTube, and any other Google service you use with a log in which includes your name and even in many cases your address and other personal information. Let’s not mention if you use any type of Gmail service.
This is actually only the beginning; remember when Google launched the Google Instant Search? Well, I know what you are thinking, Yahoo! and even Facebook use an instant search. (for those who do not know what instant is, if you type the letter M, search engines will start retreiving specific keywords that the “database” thinks you are interested in that begins with the letter M) . Facebook uses your friends and interests, groups, family, and posts to customize your searches. Facebook uses the information you give it to give you a more personal user experience and you gave it the information knowingly, did you do that for Google? How about Microsoft?
Think about it…
