Tuesday, December 23, 2014

The Future of Privacy (part 3)


While you may think that your online activity is private, Google is watching. With just about every site you visit, a script is running in the background called googleanalytics or googletagservices. It's a process similar to when you visit Amazon, look up Dr. Who DVD's, and then see suggestions from Amazon about other various Dr. Who items that you also might be interested in. Though this is nothing new (little programs called “cookies” that record this information, in addition to your login info, can be cleared manually or automatically, depending on your browser's security settings), are you comfortable with Google analyzing everywhere you visit online? I admit, I've sometimes been a little nervous about some of the online research for Solar Echoes that I've done, looking at info for various weapons and explosives so that I could accurately detail them in the game—after all, players play the game as “Union Guard” agents, which are sort of like interstellar CIA agents. It wouldn't surprise me if my online activity has been more closely looked at considering some of the searches I've done!

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