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Submitted by: Bill Hickey
NCVA List Master
NRT-0155 Google Introduces New Service - WebHistory:
Google has introduced a new service called Web History, which allows users to look back in time at their searches and web site visits, according to an online report and information at Google.com. Google's stated goal is to facilitate greater personalization for its users and deliver more targeted search results, but critics say it allows the company to more easily collect data on user web surfing habits.
Users of Web History are required to sign in to a Google account prior to conducting searches. By signing into this account, they can access their web history from any internet-connected computer. Adversaires that manage to capture a user's ID and password could do the same.
The web history is stored on Google servers and captures pages visited, searches, IP address, browser type and language, and one or more cookies that may uniquely identify the user's browser. USers have the ability to remove selected items from the history.
The web history tool has a "Trends" feature that captures and displays data on top searches, most visited web sites, and daily activity.
Privacy advocates warn that Google is becoming more capable of storing person- specific profiles of browsing activity. Google has downplayed the risk saying there is no privacy issue because, its policy does not allow sharing any user's web history with third parties - unless required to by law.
The latest privacy fears coincide with concerns over Google's intended $3.1 Billion acquisition of Internet advertising company DoubleClick. This acquisition will give Google incentives to disclose user web history with web advertisers. Three civil rights groups have filed a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission asking it to block the acquisition unless Google agrees to stop tracking its users.
Last Modified: Sunday, 29-Apr-2007 16:03:35 EDT