In the beginning years of internet it was all about the freedom of information, in the meanwhile it has become clear that information is not as free as we thought. Some big companies and service providers own the information and can use it for different ends, they can also actually control the flow of information as Google does in China where certain websites will not be found. Simultanously Google has to appear in court in US because they refused to deliver information to the state about the search words the public where using.
Both Google and Microsoft are 2 of many companies that aggregate a lot of information about their customers, when they sign-up for a service i.e. personal information is being submitted, but what remains mostly unnoticed for many people is that the companies are using some very advanced software tools to track the traffic an individual is doing when surfing the web. All of this information is off course is worth a lot of money to other companies that can use it for very targetted advertising. Google claims that it is using some of the information they collect such as search words to develop improved services. The spelling suggestions that Google give are based on the mistakes and corrections that they have tracked during some years.
Want some privacy? IT-gurus say kill your cookies!
(no guarantees provided, all actions that you may take based on this advise are your own responsibility)
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