she is a lesbian, radical feminist, cat lover, bibliophile, non-smoker, unitarian universalist (though she doesn't go to fellowship on a regular basis) and in the process of becoming athletic again. she dreams of being jeanne d' arc and swooping in and saving those that need saved (though she'd rather not be burned at the stake). she is a loyal friend who will do anything she can for those she loves, but she can flakey sometimes when her depression flares up. she is a loner. a southerner self-transplanted to the pacific northwest in 1998 and now believes that it doesn't rain enough here. she's known for her honesty, she can't help it, its the only way to be. she is 4'8" tall, and round. she has natural blonde hair and she also has blue eyes. she is very intense. she hates small and large crowds, she prefers the one on one or the one on a few. she has no idea what she wants to do with her life, though she would like to see more of the world than what she has seen so far (a good part of the continental united states) and she very much wants to be a mother. finally, she has huge crushes on alix olson and carolyn gage (these are from a far).

"Google as Big Brother"

Public Information Research has nominated Google, Inc. for corporate Big Brother of 2003. This is the 5th year that Privacy International has offered this
award.

Public Information Research, Inc., a nonprofit public charity, sponsors the following websites:

http://www.google-watch.org
http://namebase.org
http://www.cia-on-campus.org.

Below are some reasons why we nominated Google.

1. Google's immortal cookie:

Google was the first search engine to use a cookie that expires in 2038. This was at a time when federal websites were prohibited from using persistent cookies all together. Now it's years later, and immortal cookies are commonplace among search engines; Google set the standard because no one bothered to challenge them. This cookie places a unique ID number on you hard disk. Anytime you land on a Google page, you get a Google cookie if you don't already have one, they read and record your unique ID number.

2. Google records everything they can:

For all searches they record the cookie ID, your Internet IP address, the time and date, your search term, and your browser configuration. Increasingly, Google is customizing results based on your IP number. This is referred to in the industry as "IP delivery based on geolocation."

3. Google retains all data indefinitely:

Google has no data retention policies. There is evidence that they are able to easily access all the user information they collect and save.

4. Google won't say why they need this data:

Inquiries to Google about their privacy policies are ignored. When the New York Times (2002-11-28) asked Sergey Brin about whether Google ever gets subpoenaed for this information, he had no comment.

5. Google hires spooks:

Matt Cutts, a key Google engineer, used to work for the National Security Agency. Google wants to hire more people with security clearances, so that they can peddle their corporate assets to the spooks in Washington.

6. Google's toolbar is spyware:

With the advanced features enabled, Google's free toolbar for Explorer phones home with every page you surf. Yes, it reads your cookie too, and sends along the last search term you use in the toolbar. Their privacy policy confesses this, but that's only because Alexa lost a class-action lawsuit when their toolbar did the same thing, and their privacy policy failed to explain this.

Worse yet, Google's toolbar updates to new versions quietly, and without asking. This means that if you have the toolbar installed, Google essentially has
complete access to your hard disk every time you phone home. Most software vendors, and even Microsoft, ask if you'd like an updated version. But not Google.

7. Google's cache copy is illegal:

Judging from Ninth Circuit precedent on the application of U.S. copyright laws to the Internet, Google's cache copy appears to be illegal. The only
way a Webmaster can avoid having his site cached on Google is to put a "noarchive" Meta in the header of every page on his site. Surfers like the cache, but Webmasters don't. Many Webmasters have deleted questionable material from their sites, only to discover later that the problem pages live merrily on in Google's cache. The cache copy should be "opt-in" for Webmasters, not "opt-out."

8. Google is not your friend:

Young, stupid script kiddies and many bloggers still think Google is "way kool"," so by now Google enjoys a 75 percent monopoly for all external referrals to most websites. No Webmaster can avoid seeking Google's approval these days, assuming he wants to increase traffic to his site. If he tries to
take advantage of some of the known weaknesses in Google's semisecret algorithms, he may find himself penalized by Google, and his traffic disappears.
There are no detailed, published standards issued by Google, and there is no appeal process for penalized sites. Google is completely unaccountable. Most of the time they don't even answer email from Webmasters.

9. Google is a privacy time bomb:

With 150 million searches per day, most from outside the U.S., Google amounts to a privacy disaster waiting to happen. Those newly-commissioned
data-mining bureaucrats in Washington can only dream about the sort of slick efficiency that Google has already achieved.

There is also additional material that was added to this list, which is at

http://www.google-watch.org/bigbro.html

Thank you,
Daniel Brandt
PIR President

Public Information Research
PO Box 680635
San Antonio TX 78268-0635
Tel: 210-509-3160 Fax: 210-509-3161