ior of the user visiting a Web site or sending e-mail. The Web beacon captures
retrieved the beacon, and previously set cookie values. Web beacons are placed
access to their audience. Typical popular Web sites contain 25–35 Web beacons.
piggybacking on larger applications. Once installed, the spyware calls out to
information is available about intrusive software in Chapter 8.
making Google the world’s largest collector of online user data. Whatever Google
does with its data has an enormous impact on online privacy. Most experts
the Web server requests the ID number from the cookie and uses it to access the data stored by that
server on that visitor. The Web site can then use these data to display personalized information.
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Organizations, Management, and the Networked Enterprise
believe that Google possesses the largest collection of personal information in the
world—more data on more people than any government agency. Table 4-5 lists
the major Google services that collect user data and how Google uses these data.
For a number of years, Google has been using behavioral targeting to help it
display more relevant ads based on users’ search activities. One of its programs
enables advertisers to target ads based on the search histories of Google users,
along with any other information the user submits to Google that Google can
obtain, such as age, demographics, region, and other Web activities (such as blog-
ging). An additional program allows Google to help advertisers select keywords
and design ads for various market segments based on search histories, such as
helping a clothing Web site create and test ads targeted at teenage females.
Google has also been scanning the contents of messages received by users of
its free Web-based e-mail service called Gmail. Ads that users see when they
read their e-mail are related to the subjects of these messages. Profiles are
developed on individual users based on the content in their e-mail. Google now
displays targeted ads on YouTube and on Google mobile applications, and its
DoubleClick ad network serves up targeted banner ads.
In the past, Google refrained from capitalizing too much on the data it
collected, considered the best source of data about user interests on the
Internet. But with the emergence of rivals such as Facebook who are aggres-
sively tracking and selling online user data, Google has decided to do more to
profit from its user data.
The United States has allowed businesses to gather transaction information
generated in the marketplace and then use that information for other market-
ing purposes without obtaining the informed consent of the individual whose
information is being used. U.S. e-commerce sites are largely content to publish
statements on their Web sites informing visitors about how their information
will be used. Some have added opt-out selection boxes to these information
policy statements. An
opt-out
model of informed consent permits the collec-
tion of personal information until the consumer specifically requests that the
TABLE 4-5
HOW GOOGLE USES THE DATA IT COLLECTS
GOOGLE FEATURE
DATA COLLECTED
USE
Google Search
Google search topics
Targeting text ads placed in
Users’ Internet addresses
search results
Gmail
Contents of e-mail messages
Targeting text ads placed next
to the e-mail messages
DoubleClick
Data about Web sites visited on
Targeting banner ads
Google’s ad network
YouTube
Data about videos uploaded and downloaded;
Targeting ads for Google display-ad
some profile data
network
Mobile Maps with
User’s actual or approximate location
Targeting mobile ads based on
My Location
user’s ZIP code
Google Toolbar
Web-browsing data and search history
No ad use at present
Google Buzz
Users’ Google profile data and connections
No ad use at present
Google Chrome
Sample of address-bar entries when Google is
No ad use at present
the default search engine
Google Checkout
User’s name, address, transaction details
No ad use at present
Google Analytics
Traffic data from Web sites using Google’s Analytics service
No ad use at present
