Search Engines Routinely Spy on Their Users

The majority of the general public thinks that search engines are a great convenience and a charitable business. Their sole mission is to swiftly direct users to their potential targets. The only cost may be to occasionally view a few harmless advertisements. The user anonymity and privacy always would be total and impenetrable. By and large these computer users are the same people, who were outraged when a major semiconductor company added serial numbers to some of their microprocessors.

Most current true search engines, in their core, are enormous databases, and they are the foundations of a new generation of colossal, global spy networks. By their very nature, search engines do a lot more than just help users to direct them into their prospective goals. Since these able machines don't have to bother by minor obstacles like the Constitution, they happily record as much information as possible from the user and his computer. The Government is (at least in theory) somewhat restricted by the Constitution to spy on its citizens. Therefore the Government have to "contract out" at least some of the more tedious part of their spying to the private sector. This they do with gusto and happily fork over the people's tax money (that is also not forbidden by the Constitution) to the eager to please search companies for their "valuable" patriotic service.

From those user inquiries, the user's profile building swiftly accelerates. In time, whole countries, or better yet, the computerized world population can and will be analyzed, catalogued and outfitted with their comprehensive dossiers. People's most intimate and personal preferences will all be a part of those personal profiles. The acquired data has many interested buyers, from government(s) to private entities, who are all more than happy to pay for it quite often illegally and with taxpayer's money!

The search and data mining companies only regret is that if more than one person in a household using the same computer, the user's true identity may not be fully ascertained, at least initially. After repeated use however, the blank spots from the user's profile sheets will rapidly disappear. That is another good reason not to always use the same old "biggest and best" search engine. A powerful and convenient free combination searcher available to try OddMix PolySearch. The present "OddMix PolySearch Machine" allows to choose between some directories, several major search engines, many powerful Meta searchers, and it does not records anything anywhere. The selected page will appear on separate pages, without the need to repeatedly reapply the search terms.

Some search engines require their potential customers to first become "members" to allegedly better able to "serve" them. Members are then presented forms after forms and all sorts of data is collected, before a single web page reference is given to them. Other sites, employing a bit more finesse, bait the gullible public with "portals" and by offering "personalized" search pages. Users click here and there, and before they know it, the provider knows what stocks they own, what are their preferred sports, their home address from the requested personalized local weather reports etc. And all it takes is a few casual mouse clicks. Add chat, forums and the e-mail traffic, and it becomes very comprehensive. Isn't it better then the old style unreliable informant system used to be?

The ultimate in Internet spying is when web space is given to users to keep their computer files. People may even pay for such valuable "service". It is so convenient to have access to ones text files on the road, for example. Web space to "back up" files for one's computer is also popular. Since the site owner (and their server) and countless others are able to inspect, read and copy all or part of those files, that web space is anything but private. Most frequently pictures are posted on the web, in a free space given, to allow relatives and invited others to enjoy them. It is a safe bet, that anything anyone places in web space is eagerly copied and collected by anybody wants it.