g00gle

Another interesting article. How bad guys can use the google search engine to gain sensitive info.

Good stuff for webmasters.

www.theregister.co.uk...

Originally posted by m0rbid
I live in Canada. Tell me they displayed this ad by pure coincidence.

m0rbid, they likely used your IP address when serving up the ad. your IP address is passed to the webserver with each request you make.

Here's an interesting budget file from the whitehouse site. Those of us involved in IT budgeting would love to see some of these numbers:

www.whitehouse.gov...

Or how about the US Treasury?

www.ustreas.gov...

Originally posted by m0rbid
Yeah I know. But thinking back to the article, it said the date programmed for the cookie to stay is 36 years, that's a friggin long time...

I bet they could collect a LOT of information on a computer of a person who isn't aware of privacy issues.

Not really. I program in ASP.NET and I have to occasionally implement session cookies for local use.

There's no such thing as a "cookie keeping history." It keeps just one set of facts (for instance, you are cookied on this site. Your cookie allows you to access the site without having to re-log in EVERY Time you change to read another thread or message board area.) It overwrites the last cookie you had.

And a "36 year history" is another silly idea. Stop and think about it -- how old is your computer? 20 years old? 25 years old? 30 years old? How long do you think you'll keep your current computer -- 40 years or more?

Yes, they can get info from you. You're more at risk from spyware and adware (from downloading Kazaa and other file sharing software) than you are from cookies.

Thanks Byrd, I know how cookies work.

Let's say, if the guy wanted to make something up (about the 36 years thingie), why wouldn't he pick up a more believable number then?

Cuz you are damn right, most people won't keep the same computer for 36 years.

I disaprove some of the google's practice. Like the tool-bar. I love it. But I don't like the fact that it keeps every words I've searched for. I think you only have the option to show previous search or not, but you're not able to "not keep track" of previous search.

I have the toolbar also, and I'm thinking about removing the 'anon info sent' option..basically the page rank (its obviously not needed since this site is given a 0 out of 10 on the page rank..). I personally don't mind google. I'll probably trash this computer anyway in less then a year, so I could careless. The spyware is what kills ya, or me atleast. I constantly run adaware..

My favorite is still "Dogpile"... I usually find what I'm looking for faster there, and with less product pitch sites listed first....

New privacy issues related to g00gle

This week should have seen a public relations triumph for Google. The company began offering a free e-mail service with 100 times as much storage as Yahoo's $59.99 service. Instead the criticism has taken Google by surprise, as privacy advocates who had never before voiced criticism stepped forward. Google has previously responded to privacy concerns by saying, "we're nice, trust us" or pointing users to the company's mission statement of "do no evil". Such trite sentiments didn't work this time; even The Drudge Report piled in.

But it isn't so much Google searching email that has caused the anxiety from privacy watchdogs this week, as the company's confused retention policy. What will Google do with that data? Google's cookie is an index for all your searches until 2038, and sits alongside an Orkut cookie that tells Google - or friendly law enforcement officials or marketeers - exactly who you are. Google's Gmail will complete the picture, indexing private electronic discourse under the main Google search cookie.

"Once users register for Gmail, Google would be able to make that connection, if it chose to," Pam Dixon, head of the World Privacy Forum told the Los Angeles Times. "And if Google ever compared the two sets of data there are some people who would be chilled and embarrassed." Richard Smith, formerly at the Privacy Foundation pointed out that "Google kind of makes it easy to connect all the dots together."

"While Google brags that no humans will read your emails, the entire Gmail program will involve extensive automated profiling of you as an individual. Google will be sharing the non-identifiable portions of your profile with anyone they choose. If the ownership of Google changes, or there is a merger, the entire personally-identifiable profile will be available to the new owners or partners."

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