Google and Privacy

Google has announced that it will be changing it's policy of data storage about you and your searches. It's a move in the right direction, though much more could be done.

"Under the new policy announced on Wednesday, which Google expects to have fully implemented by the end of the year, the company will anonymize the final eight bits of the IP address and the cookie data after somewhere between 18 months and 24 months, unless legally required to retain the data for longer."

The entire article can be found here http://news.zdnet.com/2100-1009_22-6167333.html?tag=nl.e539

Now if you are a person that likes having privacy, this could be disturbing and a lot of privacy advocates feel the same way. I'm wary of this, as information is power and could be misused, though perhaps I'm just old fashioned.

I like to think of privacy on the Internet like this, it's just like a telephone conversation, but you are using a computer, the only time your privacy should be invaded, is when you give permission for it, and there should be full disclosure in a transparent manner of what information is being stored and gathered about you. I would also like to stress it should not be in tiny Print ,but stated in a clear manner.

I would like to know your feeling's about privacy, how much should people have? Who should control that information? Who has ownership over it? Who can access it?

My opinion is that the individual should have the final say on their information and privacy. The only time that should be invaded is either when a person commits a crime or they give permission.