is google spying on us?

i've seen a few reports in the news and articles on the net about this, like this one here: http://www.bostonphoenix.com/boston/...s/04414489.asp
and some of them make some disturbing suggestions. here are two of the highlights:

google's privacy policy admits that they log information about you, like your ip addy, browser type, os, date/time etc. and they obviously log what ppl are searching. alone, these two pieces of information are harmless, but several of the reports i've seen claim that google logs your ip, the date/time, and the search query together. if this is true they dont make it clear in their privacy policy and it seems totally unnecessary and dangerous.

another is gmail, which strongly urges users to "never throw anything away". the interface even makes it take a few extra clicks to delete emails.

i was wondering what guys think about this. i think the gmail theory is a little crazy sounding, but do most search engines log their users ip and other data with their search query?

Yes many of us are aware of it..

If you read everything about the Gmail service.. even when deleted the files MAY stay on the Gmail servers..untill they see fit to remove them..

so it is a good idea not to pass sensitive data via a gmail account, be it documents for a government agency, banking information, personaly identafiable or incriminating information, plans of your next terrorist attack.... well for that matter ANY internet related data transfer method..
While Googles intentions are Marketing, advertising.. it is a fine line..

So it is a good idea to not store your Warez and Pr0n on any of these sites.. google, msn, yahoo etc..

Gmail is definately (well - in my humble opinion) a push towards compiling more of the worlds information onto the web - now all your gmails have their own URL, thus making them searchable - somehow to someone, especially with the popularity over the last few years of googlehacks.

Don't listen to me though - I don't know WTF I'm talking about :err:

Seriously though, Undertakers right - I would seriously avoid using gmail for anything sensitive.

do most search engines log your query with your ip, etc.? i thought they just logged ip and stuff when you connect to google.com and then didnt match up ip's to what they searched. i'm not totally sure if google has admitted to that but i've seen a bunch of articles that say they do.

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do most search engines log your query with your ip, etc

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if they didnt I would wonder why not.. The IP to search query would help ANY search engine with its profileing information.. certain domains will be looking for similar information.. certain domains need to be targeted with differnt ADVERTISEMENTS..
PLEASE NOTE.. I am not just talking about google.. it is just that GOOGLE is the Tall Poppie..

I would avoid using any publicly available free email for anything sensitive .. not just gmail but hotmail, yahoo and the rest.

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I would avoid using any publicly available free email for anything sensitive .. not just gmail but hotmail, yahoo and the rest.

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I concur, fyrewall - spend some and use findnot.com or you can even get a free, although limited account at hushmail.com <------ uses PGP encryption

Interesting fact alert: I first found out about hushmail when I was browsing the google usenet archives and I saw that a hitman (yes, no **** - murder for hire) advertising there and his contact info was through hushmail - so when all is said - if its good enough for a professional killer its good enough for me :p

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if its good enough for a professional killer its good enough for me

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Unless he is a complete idiot.. and if he is the only Hitman useing the service.. he wont be for to much longer..

(NOt doubting the privacy and security of the service.. But free services ..you get exactly what you pay for..

slinky2004,

In our contemporary world, no one would offer you a service without chargin you something they really want to. Most of us know that Google {All search engines} is doing so. Why do you think they work really hard to offer you the best???? Chary? No .... they use every piece of inormation for marketing purposes ....

They may offer statistical {Not detailed} information about users' search strings about a particualr field or product type ...

Und3rtak3r is right! the files are not completely deleted from the server .... the server holds a copy of the email until Gmail purge them forever ....

Just my $0.02

cheers