Elective A – Concept 03

Google knows everything!
Google knows everything about you. Consumers are being consumed.

Revolution episode three - The Cost of Free (BBC 2)
“The Cost of Free examines the trades made online by users of the web as they share their thoughts, their preferences, their curiosities and their desires with the many search engines, services and media which appear to be delivering information online for free. Every day Google gathers millions of search terms that help them refine their search system and give them a direct marketing bonanza that they keep for months."
Jo Wade, Assistant Producer

AOL Searcher No. 4417749
Reporters for The New York Times tracked down a Georgia woman based solely on a review of the AOL logs.
“No. 4417749 conducted hundreds of searches over a three-month period on topics ranging from ‘numb fingers’ to ‘60 single men’ to ‘dog that urinates on everything.’ And search by search, click by click, the identity of AOL user No. 4417749 became easier to discern. There are queries for ‘landscapers in Lilburn, Ga,’ several people with the last name Arnold and ‘homes sold in shadow lake subdivision gwinnett county georgia’. It did not take much investigating to follow that data trail to Thelma Arnold, a 62-year-old widow who lives in Lilburn, Georgia.”
www.nytimes.com

http://www.bbc.co.uk/virtualrevolution/