Google/Big Brother

[John Seth]

Hmmm... where to begin...

1. _Google's immortal cookie_: Placing a cookie for 2038 is not new, for
any website webmaster.  I have had to do similar things per request and
for other reasons since I am a webmaster. It basically guarantees if
people futz with their computers date and time or other odd issues, the
cookie won't expire.  I didn't know that google did it.

2. _Google records everything they can_: Every corporate website or
other site that utilizes WebTrends Live, or other web analysis suite to
scour webserver logs or live action, tracks user traffic, patterns,
browser and computer info, among many other things.  I do it for every
site I run, and I use Urchin Web Analytics Software for Linux:
http://www.urchin.com/

Face it, your bank and credit card companies track every move you
make... I lost my bank atm/credit card, and within one day my bank
called me and asked if my card was stolen... I replied "no" and then had
them wait, indeed, my card was missing from my wallet, and they knew
before I did.

3. _Google retains all data indefinitely_: I retain all my webservers
logs until I feel I need more HD space.  Considering I have almost a
terrabyte, I've got webserver logs going back five years or more.  Most
any website and/or web server admin does this without ever disclosing it
in the policies. By this I mean, hosting providers, ie: rackspace (as a
pure example) or any other hosting company in addition to the company
paying for the service...

4. _Google won't say why they need this data_: Nor will any other
company except for "Market Analysis"

5. _Google hires spooks_: spooks? lol... Geeks and Computer Security
guru's.  Who doesn't? Many system admin's I know were once script
kiddies, crackers, and packet pup's... now their computer security
consultants, system admin's and the like... including many on staff
where I work... I know a few of us on this list could fit this bill.

6. _Google's toolbar is spyware_: This I have no clue about. Then again,
I refuse to use IE.  I made the mistake of opening once to test a
customer webpage and found it caused an error and had to close, not
before putting four new spam icons on my desktop.  In my opinion, if you
use IE, you will get taken advantage of.  If people want popup blockers
and a standards compliant web browser, check out Mozilla, or it's many
projects.  Opera's not too bad either.

7. _Google's cache copy is illegal_: If this is the case, AOL better get
rid of it's cache servers. Businesses such at Artera Turbo and others
that cache websites to help improve bandwidth consumption (which many
ISP's have) are also illegal.  As a webmaster, it doesn't bother me to
use SSI (.shtml webpages) and use a static webpage with the following:

<meta http-equiv="pragma" content="no-cache" />
<meta name="date" content="2003-10-16T21:36:27-05:00" />

   Using PHP or SSI you can change the content field of 'date' to by the
current time, fooling cache servers into thinking the content has
been updated. Point 2: when a site of mine crashed and the backup
tapes died and vault copies were running late, Google's cache helped
me pull the site back up with less effort.

8. _Google is not your friend_: Nor is AOL... but 75% of the traffic to
most of my sites comes from AOL users. If it was up to me, I'd deny AOL
from accessing any of my sites. Since they control so much of my
traffic, I won't, or else I'd shoot my own foot. Every company,
especially the size of Google, has issues.  If you got over 3 million
emails a day, would you answer them all?  As for as search engine
submissions, I submit to them all, google just happens to be on the
list.

9. _Google is a privacy time bomb_: Cookies can only do so much, if you
let them.  If you don't like a company, deny cookies from them.  If you
don't want a lot of tracks, make a habit of clearing cookies every so
often, less they'll figure out about you in particular.

... as for the last letter printed on that page... Google gets most of
it's stuff from DMOZ.org, an open source website directory and adds its
own stuff into it along the way depending on whatever preferences they
desire.

Just my two pence. Being a webmaster, Search engines are a big deal to
me... but to me it sounds like someone wanted to gripe about something
pertaining to personal privacy.  In this day and age, when the gov't can
use a satellite to watch a person walking on a sidewalk, banks track
your every move, and open networks using wireless routers (there's 33
open wireless networks in my neighborhood... imagine in the city?),
etc... you're better off being a hermit living off the land, and no job
in order to not be tracked.

It already affects linux, watch RedHat's movements... they do whatever
the majority wants, that is until the money trail leads elsewhere such
as RH's enterprise series, leaving non-paying customers out of the loop.
 It's business, no matter what, in business, money talks.  Thank
goodness Linus Torvalds doesn't let money spoil him or the kernel
developers.

-- 
<? print(pack("c*", 74,117,115,116,32,/* Tony Evans                  */
 65,110,111,116,104,101,114,32,80,72, /* Linux/Web Implementation    */
 80,32,72,97,99,107,101,114,46,10));  /* http://www.phoenixwing.com/ */ ?>


> I presume some of this doesn't apply to Linux, but most of it probably
> does.
>
> http://www.rense.com/general43/goog.htm
>
> Joe
>
> --
> I plan on living forever. So far, so good.