Does Google Know Too Much About You?

Do you trust Google? If you use its multitude of online services on a daily basis you might, but is that assumption wise? For some, Google is a wonderful company with a broad selection of useful online tools that make life easier, but for others Google is a looming, unregulated monster just waiting for the moment to drop the 'don't' from the company's unofficial motto, "Don't be evil."

Recently, at the Aspen Ideas Festival, WNYC talk show host Brian Lehrer asked Google CEO Eric Schmidt if Google's constantly growing importance to users in the United States and around the world meant that Google needed to be regulated as a utility by the Federal Government. The surprise wasn't in Schmidt's response (which was "no"), but the fact that everyone in the room laughed at Lehrer's suggestion.

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But is it that funny? Google tracks your online behavior to deliver relevant advertising; the company inadvertently controls a large amount of what you see online through its search results; it's amassing the greatest library since Alexandria; it has a huge share of the online video market; and offers a wide range of services that bring more and more of your daily online habits into its online sphere. Heck, Google has even flirted with offline advertising.

But Google Wants to Do Even More.

Earlier this week, Google announced it's jumping off its own servers and onto your desktop with its own operating system, Chrome OS. The move has prompted sharp reaction from privacy advocates, including the Electronic Frontier Foundation, the Center for Digital Democracy, the Center for Democracy and Technology, and the American Consumer Institute Center for Citizen Research.

Google has often been accused of poor privacy standards, and has been criticized over privacy many times. The search giant's entry into a market largely dominated by Windows has received applause for bringing more competition to the OS market, but a successful operating system could put even more information about your computing behavior into the hands of one company.

How serious could Google's online domination get? You tell me.

Google Has Your Day-to-Day Habits

Many people have a lot of information just sitting there on Google's servers including personal appointments (Calendar), correspondence (Gmail), work and personal documents (Google Docs) and online reading habits (Google Reader).