Everything. ok, almost everything.

I was a reading a post on “Google To Become Open Source Science Repository” at Techcrunch. While this is a really nice gesture by Google, what made me uneasy was Ducan’s observation that “We thought Google knew everything, now it will know even more“. So I just made a list of Google’s products that I use and what google knows about me. The list was really scary. Read on and most probably you will be scared too.

Google Search :- all my searches (interests, hobbies, plans). May be my profession too.
Google Desktop Search :- all the content on my laptop
Google Toolbar :- the web sites I visit, frequency of visit
Gmail :- All my emails. Even if you do not use gmail, if the person you send mails, uses gmail then google knows the content of the email sent by you.
Orkut :- myyour freind list, the communities I belong to
Blogger :- frequency of my blog post, all those post that I never published
Adsense :- my complete address, my online income, which posts on my blog are more popular
Adword :- my credit card information
Analytics :- details about my users, where and how they come from
webmaster tools:- the search term I target

Personally I love google and I use their products because they are the best ones available. But the thought that one company knows too much about me sometimes worries me. Just in case they become evil someday !!! I think we desperately need an alternative, may be an open source search engine.

The following links will explain exactly why I am uncomfortable.
AOL search data scandal
US regional bank hacked
AT&T hack exposes 19,000 identities

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