Google Tracking Users

The Google Incorporation has recently announced on Tuesday that it will start to track people when they are using Google search, Gmail, or watching videos on YouTube, along with using any other types of Google services. Google will be tracking people from their mobile devices as well as those who use these services from their computer.

This announcement was made shortly after Facebook made the announcement that the newly released Timeline will become the new default interface for Facebook. Services such as these will make the preferences and activities of all 800 million members a lot more accessible. These changes will take place within a few weeks. P.J. McNealy, an analyst for Digital World Research, has said, “”It’s clear that they’re doing this to chase more advertising revenue.”

United States online advertising and marketing in 2011 was at an all-time high and is expected to increase during 2012 and the next few years to come. There are a number of companies, including Apple, Twitter, and Yahoo, all of which are participating in such a gold rush, with billions of dollars being spent on marketing.

Within the past few weeks, both Facebook and Google have been under scrutiny for violating the privacy of their members. It is sure that this will continue as these new features and changes will be taking place shortly.

Representative Ed Markey has said, “Google’s plan to change its privacy policy raises important questions about how much control Google users will have over their personal information.” Alisdair Faulkner, the chief product officer for ThreatMetrix has said, “Both are racing to monetize our private information and in doing so creating collateral damage.” Faulkner also says, “They are essentially indexing more and more private information and, in doing so, serving it up on a platter to cybercriminals.”

Prior to the changes being made, when an individual searched for specific things on the internet or surfed the web, participating in activities, and watching certain videos with Google services, the information was only used to help generate specific advertisements for certain products. However, with the new policy, after it becomes effective on March 1^st, all searching and web surfing activities can and will be tracked by the company as a means of generating advertisements and targeting specific consumers. This is a huge marketing strategy for both Google and Facebook.

One example of the new change would be, to search for a specific car on YouTube. After searching for a video of that particular car on YouTube, the consumer may notice an advertisement for that specific car or the company that produces the car on your Gmail account. Basically, everything you search and look at online will be used to generate advertisements that are targeted directly toward you.