I was listening to a podcast of Leo Laporte’s KFI program (The Tech Guy), and shared his surprise and shock when he found out about Google Web History, which, if enabled, keeps track of every site you’ve ever visited through a Google search, including the dates and times of the visits. Every. Single. One. Additionally, if you’ve got the Google Web Toolbar installed, every single site you visit, even if you don’t get there through Google, is added to your history.
I can see where this would be a useful feature–if you wanted it. It’s password protected, and you have to sign into Google to use it. However, if you’re the type that leaves themselves signed into Google all the time, and someone else sits down at your computer, they could conceivably see everything you’ve looked at since Web History started tracking you.
Since this service is apparently added to your account (and possibly enabled–Laporte’s account was tracking him, but mine was not) automatically and without your knowledge, this is a potential major breech of privacy. Bad form on Google’s part for not sending out an email to registered users or at least printing some sort of message about it on signed-in users’ iGoogle pages.
If you’re concerned about this, some useful links.
As a sidenote, the Google Accounts help system seems to run on Python, at least partly. Cool.
[tags]google, google web history, privacy, leo laporte[/tags]