Last chance to delete your google browsing history...

[AppleQueso]

In the future, there will be 500,000,000,000,000 different websites... but NONE of them are cool!!

I wonder how close we actually are to that number

[pakopako]

Not news. Also on that note, I did this last year.

But that's to my accounts. Randomly opening up Google sets cookies on your browser's current... gah, brain melting... current session so you have to de-select a bunch of things (like information on where you're located).

[Xeogred]

Eh, this falls under "I don't really care." Target already does stuff like this and can now detect that you're pregnant and project the expected date within two weeks.

I guess we're in the minority. It's a weird decision I don't really think is a good one, but I also don't really care.

[J T]

Part of what worries me about this is not simply lack of privacy, but one of the main purposes for how this information is to be used, which is largely to provide you with customized search results and advertising.

Customized ads don't bother me too much, though I do find it creepy that Amazon has better gift ideas for my tastes than my parents do. I also don't really like that anyone that watches me use a computer has some little insight into my interests by simply looking at the types of advertising that appears in my sidebars online. I love gaming, but I don't like everyone to know I'm a gamer, you know what I mean?

The customized search results is what really disturbs me though. By having Google retrieve search results that it believes we want to read, we are all subjected to a search engine induced form of the confirmation bias. We already tend to seek out evidence that confirms our beliefs while denying evidence that disconfirms them as a natural shortcoming of human cognition. Now, we have this problem on a grander scale as Google becomes more likely to only send you the search results that it thinks you want to hear. I find this to be corrosive for politics. People need to encounter opposing opinions in order to make educated choices when they vote, but if the very search engines we would use to find information already bias our research into a topic in a direction that confirms things we already believe, it's going to be even harder to know what to believe is true in this world.

[MrPopo]

Customized ads don't bother me too much, though I do find it creepy that Amazon has better gift ideas for my tastes than my parents do. I also don't really like that anyone that watches me use a computer has some little insight into my interests by simply looking at the types of advertising that appears in my sidebars online. I love gaming, but I don't like everyone to know I'm a gamer, you know what I mean?

Amazon has the power of statistics backing it up. Even if your parents know every game that you buy, Amazon is still going to make a better choice because they know that customers who buy X usually buy Y. Personally, I like those sorts of features, as they've helped me find stuff I wasn't aware of otherwise.

The customized search results is what really disturbs me though. By having Google retrieve search results that it believes we want to read, we are all subjected to a search enginge induced form of the confirmation bias. We already tend to seek out evidence that confirms our beliefs while denying evidence that disconfirms them as a natural shortcoming of human cognition. Now, we have this problem on a grander scale as Google becomes more likely to only send you the search results that it thinks you want to hear. I find this to be corrosive for politics. People need to encounter opposing opinions in order to make educated choices when they vote, but if the very search engines we would use to find information already bias our research into a topic in a direction that confirms things we already believe, it's going to be even harder to know what to believe is true in this world.

See, this is the first real argument I've seen that wasn't just knee-jerk paranoia, and leave it to the Psych major to come up with it. You'd certainly want to dig deeper into the customized search results algorithm to see just how much confirmation bias gets affected by this, but the danger certainly is there. For example, customized searches that pull up pages related to MechWarrior rather than Greek mythology when I search for "Atlas" is good. Customized searches that pull up only one side of the debate when I search for "abortion" is bad.

[gtmtnbiker]

I don't know if it's related to it but I really enjoy how Google/Chrome can remember my browsing/search/saved logins. For instance, I go to racketboy.com on my new computer using Chrome and my saved username/password is already filled in. Awesome!

My searches are often faster to initiate because of the saved history. Often times, I start typing a few characters and then I see my previous search strings come up and I just select it.

So I have no issues with Google.

[Menegrothx]

As long as people are voluntarily using sites like Facebook, dont use adblock and so on, stuff like this is pretty irrelevant

[Hazerd]

Why should you worry that Google keeps tabs on what yout searching unless its "bad" are you paranoid of the FBI kicking your door down, or you just dont want Google to use you as a Advertising Statistic?

[Menegrothx]

Why should you worry that Google keeps tabs on what yout searching unless its "bad" are you paranoid of the FBI kicking your door down

Why should you worry about the government tapping your phones calls unless you're a terrorist or a criminal?

[Stark]

Why should you worry that Google keeps tabs on what yout searching unless its "bad" are you paranoid of the FBI kicking your door down, or you just dont want Google to use you as a Advertising Statistic?

You should worry about anyone keeping tabs on you that isn't you. Let's say you can without a doubt, say that Google won't use your information against you. Once they start collecting that information it's possibly available to someone that will use it to negatively affect you. That's your private information and you have to make sure that they protect you from hackers getting it? How about they just don't have that information to begin with.