Apparently quite a bit. An item in the Search Engine Facts newsletter published by Axandra in late May detailed what services gathered what data. I’ve boiled down the item’s findings to …
- all of your searches and your interests
- how often and long you visit Web sites and the links you click
- the complete content of your desktop
- the content of your email messages
- the stocks you own or are interested in
- the way people visit your web site
- the web sites you visit
- which people you write to and which people write to you and what you write about
- your cell phone number
- your complete address
- your credit card information
- your favorite news sources
Of course this information doesn’t comes in one big chunk but in many different pieces from the various Google services and it is through identification data stored in cookies that Google can potentially combine the information to create a detailed profile of you. The question is, do they? I doubt it but the opportunity is there. So the real question becomes how long until they can’t resist doing something with the data?
