Google finds itself in a massive scandal followed by a public apology for the misuse of it's gathered information in 5... 4... 3...

DustyButt

......I am kind of paranoid now. Who needs Britain's big brother cams when we carry a GPS personal database device with us?

Khuluna

It brings up some very valid points that this is just a part of Googles "scheme" of becoming all knowing. It's kind of scary. Mail, Chrome, Search and now a very powerful mobile platform.

jlindenbaum

Hmmm.....You know what? I think I'll just keep my iPhone....Thanks.

TheSonOfKrypton

Ha!

Funny stuff, but how did you find all that out?!? I thought I cleared my history.

Elijah

Hah! Nice article!

StopTheLHC

don't worry, google doesn't care about your porn habits...

...no more than MySpace, Facebook, Yahoo Mail, MSN, or Amazon does...

...

melikespi

Oh, and don't forget Facebook. You write your own file for Google to keep in their massive Data filing cabinet.

eaglestrike7339

@Elijah: I asked a question about Mobile Me...I didn't ask for a diagnosis of my eyesight. But thanks anyway.

Kspraydad

Google=Skynet

duntov

Big Brother watches you for your good, but has ni long-term memory and a short-term that blanks after 9 hours.

kanon

@Kspraydad:

No. No it doesn't.

Luvs my blind people who follow a company without knowing the alternatives.

Elijah

Doesn't Mobile Me etc equate to the same thing?

Luvs my Google.

Kspraydad

This is a bit troubling.

paja

Is it sad that I remember that image from a fark.com photoshop contest a long while ago..?

Jrsy is the dude, playing the dude, disguised as another dude

@MayorBe?e is getting what plants crave: LMAO you have not been reading Gizmodo long have you? You will learn!

JackMatt

07:43:38: Application - Search
...
Search Term: creampies

MayorBee is getting what plants crave

oh my god they have my life in record!! damn it, I just did not want to believe it but the truth is right here!

<-- add depressed to the list please!

JackMatt

That was the best joke article from Gizmodo in the last few months!

MICHAELSD

Super Cuts is cheap for a guys hair cut? That place charges almost $20 for a cut.

Unknown2U

FAIL

At 7:43 I was searching "male-male creampies."

badhatharry

Great post, thanks

sofong

I was wondering when someone was going to think about this I always think about stuff like this, there is always a possibility a company could do this to there users, att, verizon, tmobile, sprint, nokia, lg, sony, apple, microsoft, google, could all be doing it in some way or form right now and we may not know about it.

utube2007

Paranoid Android

:P

had to mention that

ArakniD

Never mind the troubling aspects with regards to privacy and misuse of personal information: You mean that as a blogger, I can slag my co-workers in a widely-read public forum? Sign me up!

Mandatory_Field

It may be time to think: Google are not the nice guys anymore... Maybe there is a lot of free stuff... But... They may be taken over as the Evil Empire.... They are like these convoluted hedge funds... Always trying to think about new ways to profit from everything while take "a little bit at a time" from the user. That sounds evil?

altus

google can take all the non security type info they want from... it allows to companies to focus thing on how i like them... that is all they are trying to do... oh and so i spend more money there which i probably will do once i learn about them... that can happen if android does everything i am have dreamed of

purple-pillows

@ArakniD: good one !

marcucuarcu

Google's 2084 is closer than you think!

takashimiike 7

The future:

[www.aclu.org]

Hardcore1

@Hardcore1: interesting...

For once its actually a good thing to live in a third world country where companies dont care how i spend my pennies...yet

Macdelaney

@Frucci: Awesome post. @Hardcore1: even awesomer video from the ACLU. Everybody should check it out.

jackbrown

@Unknown2U: REALLY!?

I just paid $10 earlier today.

ttech10

yah know. I really am sick of all the tin foil hat wearing people out there. You don't see this crap about ATT. All your info is going over their network. OMG! they could be watching you! OH NOZ!!!!

Like it or not you have to trust someone at some point. Crapcast, or hotmail, or yahoo has your e-mails. What keeps them from snooping? Google has already gone on record as saying the data mining is all automated and most of the 9 months of data is IP addresses and other various things to avoid security risks, both for spoofing purposes and overall security.

Yet there is always the paranoids out there who thinks Google employees are sitting there for hours on end checking out people's data. guess what guys. Google has better things to do then riffle through what is in your docs or where you've browsed today.

In short I don't trust Microsoft due to their previous behavior. they have a known history of slimeball practices. Until Google displays a pattern of similar behavior I won't be putting my hands up to the sky and scream EVIL! EVIL EMPIRE!
the only reason you people are acting this way is because they are a company that is larger then 500 people and makes more then a million a month: read: they aren't a small time outfit. That is _NOT_ a reason to automatically crap on whatever they do. Google has been doing their best to be transparent as possible, within reason (Sorry guys but there are legit security concerns to total transparency.) Most of the projects that could be construed as empire building: Android, gears, Chrome, etc are all open source.

Your concern basically boils down to google is bundling a bunch of services into one package. Again...so? when they start pulling some real crap THEN lets talk. But the reality is as long as there is someone out there as an alternative to gmail, to google.com, to google cal, etc. If they start playing games I can dump their sorry butt.

SiliconAddict

Fair enough, but if yahoo read my mail or my isp checked my history they could make equally humbling definitions of me...

kidlucrative

To be honest, I don't care. I'd rather that Google have this info than Microsoft, Apple, my Cell Phone provider, my ISP provider, the government, or anyone else. Just because Google doesn't fuck with me, and as long as they uphold their customer first style of business I will support them.

SgtToastie

Scary! It already sucks when I open up chrome on my computer and it shows my "most visited" sites with a very graphic thumbnail of YouPorn in first place.

Guys, I know about the "Porn-Mode" - but this was from the imported history of my other browser. Damn!

Gee-Jay

@SiliconAddict:

...Yet there is always the paranoids out there who thinks Google employees are sitting there for hours on end checking out people's data. guess what guys. Google has better things to do then riffle through what is in your docs or where you've browsed today...

i think that's what could very well happen when gizmodo's writers get a hold on those information. yes, i think they have nothing better to do. but i also think they have a tremendous sense of humor.
but thank god they don't have info on me.
or do they?

001

is gawker profiling which posts are read and user submitted comments on gizmodo to tailer ads on the site? Yes, yes they are.

iPhoneGroupie

08:31:17: Application - Gmail
User sends 1 new email
Keywords: dinner, meet, Ford Fiesta

Current Demographic Profile: Single Male New Yorker, Low Income

Hyman Decent

@TheSonOfKrypton: I wouldn't stay with apple. Google cares so much about you that they profile you and build applications that you would actually use (so they can continue to profile you). Apple, on the other hand, cares about a good-looking user experience, even you can't actually use 3G, also they want you to buy a new product every 6 months, or spend $150 on a battery replacement. They also want you to believe that you're 'cool' because you wasted your money on a mac when you could have gotten an equivalent computer from lenovo, dell or toshiba for 60% of the mac price. They also want to restrict you from using your own shoes with their hardware.

.. glad to see you've got your priorities straight.

Rodime

Hilarious! you guys spent a lot of time creating this! pretty awesome!! that sounds too real for being just imagination... Just kidding, maybe you guys are that good! Just kidding! I know you are, or this wouldn't be called gizmodo!

Ariel_Wollinger

That was hilarious. Nice to know as well. I wasn't planning on getting an andriod phone anyways but this is more of an incentive not to get one.
I can already imagine the google employees making fun of the people they read about.

SneakerFiend

@badhatharry: "FAIL" right back at ya, your not Benny Goldman. But thanks anyway for broadcasting your sexual fantasies.

im_back

"Sorry, you can't have this job, the profile we purchased from Google says you surf porn."

chrism123

That google or other companies profile people isn't all that scary, what's scary is that their crappy profiling (which it inevitably will be) just like Amazon's book suggestions, will someday be used like a credit score is today, to make major life decisions, like whether or not you'll be allowed to board a plane, buy something, or date someone.

chrism123

Is google really the FBI?

Gary_7vn

lol
and yeah, I think what chrism123 said in jest (?) about companies getting a profile from Google (or if not Google, Facebook or something similar) is disturbingly realistic.

kzooguy

@SiliconAddict: The primary reason not to trust Google with all of your personal data isn't paranoia, or that they are a big company, or even that they're profit oriented. It's that they have made too many mistakes with regards to security.

Mandatory_Field

How dare you inject humor into my quest for juicy G1 details! This is one of the funniest things I have read all day. Thanks! :)

MyTQuinn