Google has again come under criticism over its shady methods of gathering information about the U.K population through the emails we send through Gmail and the data obtained through world’s most used web browser Google Chrome.
The ICO (Information Commissioner’s Office) is investigating Google’s seemingly unlawful tactics used to record a number of quite personal details about us including “complete email messages, email headings, instant messages and their content, logging-in credentials, medical listings and legal infractions, information in relation to online dating and visits to pornographic sites”. Google has previously claimed that this data was collected by mistake, however the company’s Street View is also under fire over the frightening and blatently intrusive methods it employs to harvest data for maximum coverage of its in-depth panoramic photo mapping feature. Essentially a van comes round and snaps the front of your house or work place including your vehicle (registration is blurred out when the photos hit the web) and this has been a cause for concern since the service went live in 2007 with more and more stereoscopic 3D image gathered regularly.
An enquiry in the United States has promoted the U.K commission to reopen its own enquiry and Google are believed to be working in co-operation. But again this is a startling revelation as to how much the internet and its minions are gathering about us on a daily basis – and like us, we think it’s something worth knowing about.
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