I've talked a couple times about the Google toolbar and how it holds the potential for an enormous amount of data collection because the T&Cs that no one reads permit Google to collect all of the user's browser based searching behavior.
Now comes this post on TechCrunch which points out that the new Google Ad Planner may be using this toolbar data for ad targeting.
Google isn't saying if the toolbar data if now being used for targeting. Which makes me all but certain that it is. If it wasn't, I think they'd be all over themselves to deny it.
The thing is, if the data are anonymized I personally don't consider it a major privacy problem. WHAT IS A PROBLEM is the secretiveness of this and other companies who seem to have forgotten that nothing goes unnoticed on the medium that they helped pioneer.
Say TechCrunch:
If that is true, Google should disclose the fact, even if it is only using the toolbar data in an aggregate, anonymous form. Because most people who download the toolbar are probably not aware that the data it collects about their surfing habits can be used to target ads back at them.
To paraphrase Gilbert and Sullivan, "I am the very model of a GODDAMN TROJAN HORSE."
Thanks for reading, and don't forget to write.
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