Google to analyse game players?
Working in the search engine marketing industry invariably means “Google watching” on an almost daily basis. A piece in the Guardian caught my eye this morning - David Adam and Bobbie Johnson report that Google may be intending to track online game players’ habits to better serve relevant adverts.
Inevitably, privacy campaigners were quick to spot the downside of this idea - that Google, already holders of massive amounts of personal data, would be surreptitiously creating psychological profiles of it’s users. Sue Charman of the Open Rights Group comments, “Whenever you have large amounts of information it becomes attractive to people - we’ve already seen the American federal government going to court over data from companies including Google.”
Excellent article that deserves a read by anyone interested in Google’s technology and ambitions - and, of course, those whose job it is to protect our individual freedoms, already seriously eroded by “War on Terror” legislation.
Read the Guardian article here
May 16th, 2007 at 2:00 pm
I do not know why everyone is so scared about this. If you have done nothing wrong why would you be worried.
May 25th, 2007 at 12:38 pm
Well one reason that springs to mind is not a paranoia issue - it’s a about choice and diversity. When I go on the web I want the whole diverse, wonderful, awesome experience, not what Google thinks I want.
May 31st, 2007 at 3:52 pm
ONly 6 years ago - one of the great things about the web was the fact that any information contained in it was property of the people. Now we have governments dictating what information is available etc. And promoting targeted products to people who haven’t even opted in via online gaming etc.. Where did it all go wrong and where is it going to end??
July 16th, 2007 at 11:28 pm
If it is the same Charman that I know, one involved with open rights, etc, then the first name is spelt Suw, not Sue.
July 16th, 2007 at 11:35 pm
Oh yeah. It was a story in the Guardian. Nuff said.
(For non-UK readers: The Guardian is a British national newspaper commonly known as “Teh Grauniad” to many of its readers and non-readers alike, due to its long history of awful and prolific spelling and grammar mistakes.)