“What’s the definition of the word privacy?”

“I don’t know, Google it.”

  It’s a phrase we hear almost every day of our lives. If someone has a question they need answered, they’ll Google it. Don’t know the answer to that math problem? Google it. Need a recipe for chicken cordon bleu? Google it. The search engine has become such a huge part of people’s lives, it even gained its own entry in the dictionary.

  But if you do use Google (and I know that you do), there are some important things you should probably know about the site. Recently, users of the search engine may have noticed a small bar popping up at the top of the page, exclaiming “We have changed our privacy policy. Click here to learn more!” Most people probably clicked “dismiss.” I know I did. I mean, who in the world cares about a privacy policy? After all, it doesn’t pertain to them in the least, does it?

  You would be surprised to find that it does. If you do ever take the time to read through Google’s privacy page, you’ll be horrified to find out the information they can and will take from you.

According to an article by Frida Ghitis from cnn.com, Google saves everything you search, click, or send. Every date you have marked on Google calendar and every conversation you’ve had on Google Voice are saved. Every e-mail you sent from Gmail, recorded. You can never unclick or redo these activities, and it stays in the Google database forever.

  That’s more than just a little unsettling.

  What’s even more unsettling is the way the corporation profits from hoarding this information.

  Do you ever notice those ads that seem to stalk you from website to website? Do you ever look at one and think to yourself I wonder how the internet knows I’m into things like that. Well, you can thank Google for that. The company hoards all of the information you give to them, by searching, sending e-mails, etc. and uses it to build a profile about you. They then sell that profile to ad companies.

  So now, all of this stuff about you is floating around the internet. Information that is seemingly private is just out there for companies to buy up and use for their own corporate greed. They are profiting from data in a way that is not only unethical, but probably should be illegal as well.

  Obviously, we can’t all just stop using the internet. It would be counterproductive and would probably spark riots of some sort. Just remember: before you search, click, or send anything, think twice. We shouldn’t have to censor our activities this way, but for now, it’s the best thing we can do.