How Google knows everything about you

GOOGLE CRITIC: Professor Hermann Maurer.

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Google knows just about everything about you – even if, in the unlikely event, you've never used their search engine.

Google's strongest international critic, in Auckland yesterday, warned it is the "biggest detective agency that ever existed".

Professor Hermann Maurer, chairman of Graz University's Institute for Information Systems and Computer Media in Austria, told Fairfax Media that Google is so good at collecting information it violated data protection laws in countries like New Zealand.

A research team he led argued that Google created unacceptable monopolies in many areas of the worldwide web.

He found around 61 billion internet searches are conducted each month.

In the United States, on average 57 per cent of searches are conducted with Google, and up to 95 per cent of internet users use Google sometimes.

"It is dangerous enough that a single entity such as Google is dominant as a search engine," the study said.

Speaking at Auckland University's Business School Professor Maurer said Google's search engine were not the problem as such, but rather the way they linked the up to 50 Google applications. He said the United States based company had teams of people and software constantly analysing content, including what is in Gmail.

"Its not the search engine as such, it's the fact that they can put together lots of information from various services. It is from this that they have lots of information about you."

People did not need to even use Google products to give themselves away.

A product, Google Analytics, is installed on internet service providers (ISPs) and everyone who uses them is recognised and the information is passed onto Google.

In his study they had surveyed 300,000 ISPs, and 83 percent of them had Analytics.

It records every action a user takes and makes it available to the ISP who can know what their customers are doing.

"It is a beautiful piece of software. It has only one little hitch and this information is passed onto Google," Professor Maurer said.

Google itself says it uses the information to better target Google advertising.

"My suspicion … is that they maybe the can use this information for other purposes, maybe sell it to others who may be interested."

The intentions are good but Google could come under pressure to sell the information to others. And under US company laws it cannot refuse to sell a product that would enhance stockholder value.

Professor Maurer said since the study was published last year, the European Union was warning ISPs and companies that Analytics violated data protection law. It was now being removed by ISPs.

Google though has a new browser, Google Chrome, that if used sends every URL or internet page visited to Google.

"This is a very dangerous thing," he said.

He said it was not just information on individuals Google kept, but it also had incredible details on companies. It often knew more about the fate of a company than any of its shareholders could ever know. It was in a unique position to know which companies were worth buying and which were not.

"Google's open aim is to know everything there is to know on Earth," his report said.

"It cannot be tolerated that a private company has that much power: it can extort, control, and dominate the world at will."

Google have a standard reply for Professor Maurer's claims.

"These allegations are premised on numerous inaccuracies, conspiracy theories and fundamental misunderstandings about Google's products and services. They're completely without foundation and, frankly, a little strange."

- © Fairfax NZ News