The Google Spies

[oblio]

http://www.sindustries.org/google/

[shkuey]

I wish the US government sites would be so quick to verify your country of origin, I get a runaround of reverse DNS requests and all sorts of other hassles to prove I'm in the US.

I honestly don't care that google redirects to specific server for your country, how does that hurt anyone?

[Terr]

Has the guy every considered that Google might just be trying to be helpful by perhaps collaborating with the Web Mapping Project? Jeez.

[KorpDeath]

Not to mention what if their servers are being overloaded, ever heard of load-balancing? This guy is idiot. Of all the things on the web to get upset about Google redirecting you to a local server is probably at the bottom of the list.

[oblio]

It isn't about redirection. If they wanted to load balance, they do not need to store which country an ip address originates from and serve them on another server. They can check the load on their server and based on that redirect to a mirror server. There is no need for harvesting IP addresses and storing databases.

[D.J.]

i have to agree with the last two posts. besides, i use google at school to get past their smartfilter.
i go through hell tryin' to get to some of my favorite security sites without it. maybe it is ok for everyone.
i haven't been hurt by it.

[shkuey]

Originally posted by oblio
It isn't about redirection. If they wanted to load balance, they do not need to store which country an ip address originates from and serve them on another server. They can check the load on their server and based on that redirect to a mirror server. There is no need for harvesting IP addresses and storing databases.

Well if their Canadian server is actually in Canada, it may just give you faster access, which would help them with load balancing and help you get your information faster.

Saying that they're harvesting addresses and storing them in a database is just conjecture.

[KorpDeath]

But your missing the point. It is about redirecting. Saving an IP address in a database is not invading privacy if it's used to find the closest mirror to you. I wish more sites did that. It would help the Internet by keeping traffic as local as possible.

Now if they are attaching purchased information to the Ip address to create a profile then that is wrong, but then again for that where is the evidence.

[oblio]

saving an ip address in a database with data about the person who uses the IP address is invading privacy. Especially when the company doing this is providing a service which can potentially store information which has an expectation of privacy. Google makes no mention on their site of doing such things. They offer no warning or anything, their privacy policy makes no mention of this database mapping ips to countries but they do admit that they store queries with ip addresses. They say in the privacy policy that they do not collect personal information from your browser, but it says nothing about this ip database.

[zepherin]

Or could it be that google uses a tracert. Gee you know the tracert tool. A trained monkey could use it. It says oh wow this person is in France mabey I should display the menu in french or hey this person is in Japan how bout some kanji and hirigana to brighten their day?