Predicting your behavior with an absolute accuracy has been Google’s quest for two decades.
If they can do that, they can generate endless stream of money from advertisers and anyone
else who is willing to pay for exploiting such power.
How much are they able to follow you across the Internet?
Well, the reality is that Google’s surveillance has no limits.
They track literally everything you do and everywhere you go.
And not just on the Internet, but even in real life.
This how Google manages to follow your every step.
In China, Google has been secretly developing a covert version of Google search in order
to enter the vast Chinese market.
At the request of the Chinese government, Google will link users’ mobile phone numbers
to the search terms they’ve used.
This is to help the government to crackdown on dissidents and activists, and become more
efficient overall at censoring the Internet.
This was revealed just last month and it may come as a shock to Western audience, that
Google would rather choose to be implicit in human rights abuse with the Chinese government,
than be principled and lose profit.
But Google has been doing this in Western democracies for ages.
Whenever you search for something, Google will create a server log that will remember
your browser and OS configuration, IP address and a unique cookie planted on your device by Google.
The link you click on from the results is logged and Google will keep a record of the
websites you visit from there.
If you don’t delete this cookie, it will expire after 30 years, essentially logging
your entire digital presence.
From there, it’s trivially easy for Google to link your search history to your phone number.
They either have your number from your phone, or any other Google service you signed up
for, like Gmail, YouTube, or Google Play.
If they can’t get your number from their services, Google partnered with Facebook,
Twitter and other tech platforms to exchange that information with them.
If that doesn’t work, Google turns to its 100,000s of third-party partners and data
brokers like Acxiom to buy your phone number from offline databases.
Thanks to Ed Snowden, we know that all Google servers are tapped by intelligence agencies
in the US and other Five eyes countries, which include UK, Canada, Australia and New Zealand.
The US National Security Agency then keeps a copy of your search history tied back to
your phone number forever in their data centers.
Google also worked with Pentagon to develop artificial intelligence technology for US military drones.
The United States is currently engaged in military interventions in eight countries
without approval from the United Nations, and often times causes massive civilian casualties
from drone strikes.
Many Google employees resigned in protest,
claiming Google shouldn’t engage in the business of war.
Google surveillance has dramatic real life implications on human rights whether it’s
in China or the US.
It’s a political power that no politician can resist.
If you signed up for Gmail, you didn’t just give up your phone number, but some precious
information that are unique to your biology.
Ever since Gmail came to existence, Google has been actively scanning your emails for
keywords to expose you to more ads in your inbox.
But Google also used your private emails to study your writing style and the way you type.
Similar to how you walk is unique to your person, the way you hit keys on your keyboard
and your writing style also belong to you only.
This allows Google to identify you across your whole Internet presence, even if you
create pseudonymous accounts on public forums like Reddit.
In 2017, Google promised to stop active scanning of Gmail messages, but it was revealed that
Google continues to let third-party app developers that use Gmail to scan users private emails.
It would often be the case that employees of Google and its partners ended up manually
reading your emails for further unspecified purposes,
but mostly for security, app development, and advertising.
These third parties are even allowed to further share your emails to their partners, and thus
multiplying the amount of copies.
If you ever deleted your email or even your entire Gmail account, Google visually fulfills
your request, but residual copies are kept in their offline backup systems indefinitely.
Google doesn’t go after the third-party developers to delete their copies of your emails.
Your private emails thus remain copied and stored in data centers across the globe with
unknown security and no oversight.
Google uses your browsing history not only to target you with ads, but to identify you as well.
Google only needs snippets of your browsing record to be able to determine identities
of users on the web.
Google tracks your browsing history through AdSense, DoubleClick and various other advertising
and tracking scripts that belong to the company.
Even Google+ share plugins on websites are used to track users even if they logged off
or never used Google+, similar to how Facebook tracks browsing history through like and share plugins.
Where cookies don’t work, Google uses your unique ID number that is assigned to every
android device by default.
This ID is continuously followed and cross-referenced with the rest of your record to constantly
keep it up to date across all platforms and devices.
If these policies aren’t aggressive enough, Google purchases the remaining browsing records
from data brokers, internet service providers, internet exchange points or content delivery networks.
Google really wants to know where you go.
So much so that it keeps tracking your location even if you tell it not to.
First time Google was caught tracking users location on their Android phones and tablets
was through triangulation of nearby cell towers servicing users’ devices.
This information was collected even when users turned off location services, never inserted
a SIM card in their phone, or even after factory reset.
There was no way for users to opt out.
Google said this collection was put in place to improve message delivery, which wasn’t
really clear how that could work.
Nonetheless, Google promised to turn this feature off and stop collecting location data
for users who turn off location services.
That was a lie.
Even with location history turned off, Google can use any app activity to keep a minute-by-minute
record of your location but you wouldn’t have any visual way to find out about it.
To confuse users Google hid the option to turn off this collection under “Web and
App Activity” settings, where this kind of collection would not be expected by an average user.
This year is a big milestone for Google.
40% of global ad spending is expected to take place online, outspending TV advertising by $40 billion.
Google achieved dominance in digital advertising thanks to their focus, commitment and sheer will.
The will to know about every single step you make.
Google is able to attract advertisers thanks to their ability to profile records of your
entire activity on the web.
But this time, the corporate behemoth is able to track what you buy even in physical stores.
Google partnered with MasterCard and presumably other credit card companies to gain access
to roughly 70% of credit and debit card transactions in the US.
These data exchange hands aggregated and in encrypted form.
But that’s just a public relation talking point.
Google can verifiably deanonymize this data with its massive pool of personal information
it holds on their users.
By constantly tracking users location, Google can correlate when users saw an online ad
and walked into a store to buy it, almost entirely irrespective of how much time has
passed between the two events.
Digital profiles in Google’s databases contain very detailed information about users likes,
preferences, interests and private thoughts.
The search giant is able to retrospectively compare these profiles with the aggregated
databases of offline purchases to identify individual purchasing histories.
Google tracks offline purchases in order to prove advertisers when online ads make impressions
that translate into physical transactions.
Digital advertising is still a relatively new platform compared to television.
By tracking users offline purchases, Google can persuade the advertising industry that
they can pinpoint marketing campaigns with surgical accuracy.
I only mentioned tracking that we know of.
There might be numerous trade secrets, undisclosed agreements, and technologies developed by
Google to win the race to get inside people’s minds.
Google’s presence is literally everywhere and it wants to play god without permission.
But it’s possible to protect yourself.
By avoiding Google services and replacing them with alternatives whenever possible,
you can significantly reduce Google’s power in your life.
Switch to ProtonMail, start using Firefox, search with DuckDuckGo and install uBlock
origin to block much of Google’s tracking machinery.
If you want to become more advanced at protecting yourself from Google, you can watch my tutorials
on some essential tools that will help you regain control of your digital self.
Share this video so that more people can learn about Google’s powers and subscribe if you
are new to this channel.
And remember to stay vigilant.