They see j00 when you're sleeping...

Maybe not when you're sleeping, exactly, but if you spend any time online, odds are that Google knows about it.

The prospect of a consolidated Web History interests me. There is some appeal to the idea that I can go back and search my previously visited websites for that elusive site that I just... can't... quite... remember... the... address... of... If you use Google Toolbar, odds are that you know that service is available to you. You don't know that? Then read on.

I've been using the Google Toolbar for some time now, Mr. Anderson. Sometimes I use it to alert me to new Gmail waiting, but most of the time I use it because I like having my bookmarks accessible from anywhere. It's really quite handy. I recently noticed that my current web history was limited only to my search history, so I went to looking into it being turned back on for the whole gamut. Then I decided to read Google's privacy policy. It was an interesting read.

In a nutshell, one of the things I discovered was how much Google remembers about you - even if you don't have your web history enabled. For starters, there's the everlasting cookie. (Willy Wonka, eat your heart out.) That's right, Google cookies are set to expire in 2038. Wow, I wonder what kind of relic my computer will be by then. Anyway, every time you use Google, they record your search term, your unique cookie ID, your IP address, the date and time, and what browser you were using. That's quite a bit of info they've got stored away there. Now, I could hypothesize that they routinely delete their logs, but have you checked out the MB counter on your Gmail box lately? Storage isn't an issue any more - Google knows this.

Now, most web servers automatically record data through an access log - this isn't news to most people. The thing that's awesome (?) about Google is their unique cookie. IP address be damned, they know which physical computer was accessing their pages and doing searches. (They know I'm typing this right now.) Yep, that's your computer's fingerprint they've got right there. I hope you weren't searching for something like the Anarchist's Cookbook or something similar.

So I got to thinking... Google has grown just phenomenally. I, myself, have even made statements about how Google is going to rule the world in another decade. It made me start to think about who actually runs Google's backbone. Financing? Check. Seemingly unlimited resources? Check. Access to millions of user's personal email? Check. Having a front row at the "What People Are Doing on the Internet" concert? Yes, they've got that too. Seems like something Uncle Sam would just love to have going for them.

Could Google actually be a
Government Owned / Operated Global Listening Engine?
Hmm. Makes you wonder. Take a look at this article for some interesting reading.

http://www.google-watch.org/bigbro.html