Google’s argument
Why does Google think it’s so important to collect data on its users? Google argues that knowing more about people increases Google’s profits as well as improving the average user’s experience.
Clearly it is economically valuable for companies to find out more about their customers. By tracking our Internet activities, Google learns about our interests and serves us advertisements that we are more likely to click on. Therefore, Google’s advertisers pay Google more money. Additionally, behavioral targeting produces ads that users are less likely to find annoying. Perhaps a user could actually be served with an ad for something they wanted to buy and weren’t able to find anywhere else.
Additionally, Google claims that behavioral tracking improves people’s search experiences. In their official blog, Google gives the example that if someone has recently been looking at sites on the Louvre and then searches for “Paris,” they’re more likely to get results about the capital of France than about Paris Hilton. (1) Google argues that it helps consumers to personalize their search results automatically, since consumers don’t have to go through the trouble of changing their search preferences to exclude certain terms or types of results.
Furthermore, data-gathering enables Google to improve its site, which benefits Google and its users. For example, knowing how many people search for each term enables Google to provide its Spell Checker service. If someone types in a less common spelling of a search term, Google prompts them “Did you mean (the more common spelling)?” Then Google can improve the Spell Checker by tracking which suggestions are clicked on and which are not. Google can also track whether people click on the first search result or move on to another page, enabling them to further improve their search engine. According to Google’s blog, “the ability of a search company to continue to improve its services is essential, and represents a normal and expected use of such data.” (2)
Tracking also allows Google to protect their site from security threats. Analyzing server logs enables Google to detect possible hacking attempts, phishing, spam, and attempts to monopolize their servers. The official blog goes so far as to say that “immediate deletion of IP addresses from our logs would make our systems more vulnerable to security attacks, putting the personal data of our users at greater risk.” (2)
These benefits to Google and its customers would be diminished if users could easily opt out of being tracked. Perhaps people who often search for controversial or embarrassing topics would opt-out at a disproportionate rate, so Google’s collection of data would not accurately represent how people search. Google might argue that if data was collected on an opt-in basis, some people would be unaware of the possibilities for personalization that Google offers and would be unable to take full advantage of its services.
Sources:
http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2007/09/search-privacy-and-personalized-search.html
http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2007/05/why-does-google-remember-information.html