Google Spy Net

Google Spy Net

Google is building the world’s largest private, for profit, spy network.

The dictionary definition to spy is:

spy Pronunciation Key (sp(image placeholder))n. pl. spies (sp(image placeholder)z)

1. An agent employed by a state to obtain secret information, especially of a military nature, concerning its potential or actual enemies.


2. One employed by a company to obtain confidential information about its competitors.


3. One who secretly keeps watch on another or others.


4. An act of spying.

v. spied, (sp(image placeholder)d) spy·ing, spies (sp(image placeholder)z) v. tr.

1. To observe secretly with hostile intent.


2. To discover by close observation.


3. To catch sight of: spied the ship on the horizon.


4. To investigate intensively.

v. intr.

1. To engage in espionage.


2. To seek or observe something secretly and closely.


3. To make a careful investigation: spying into other people's activities.

Google has a large number of servers in many cities and countries sharing data using distributed processing and the Ultra Large File system.

Google monitors and records the IP address of searchers, keywords searched for, plus any available cookie data, and links navigated to via “click-thru’s.”

Other tools Google produces for free download like Picasa, Google Toolbar, Gmail, GTalk and others are surveillance tools. Gmail records who knows who, who writes what to whom, and who networks with whom based upon their invitation subscription service. GTalk records conversations between parties.

Data is an inanimate object like a rock or screwdriver, and as such it is amoral, without morality. An inanimate object is neither good nor bad, on it’s own it does nothing but decay over time. Morailty is correctly applied to the usage of an inanimate object, by an animate user.

What is data today may be evidence tomorrow as the law becomes increasingly fungible in the modern, complex legal environment.

All users should be aware of what Google is doing. The data freely and perhaps naively given will be available for a long time to come. The author makes no judgment on whether this is good or bad, only that it has gone on along time, and will continue into the future.

Here is an update on some of these items of concern:

• http://news.zdnet.com/2100-9588_22-6034666.html
• http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=06/02/04/1426250