This CNet article talks about the potential personal tracking ability of Google corporation. An interesting contrast is found when the depth of their info gathering abilities (from e-mail to everything you search) is compared to the public trust in the company. This isn’t the first comparison between Google and Microsoft, but it is perhaps more clearly laid out than most.
There’s something about surfing the net that seems so personal and innocuous that my guess is many do not think twice about the types of searches they do. Google does not (to my knowledge) explicitly state their log-retention policy–meaning that Google (or someone who was able to get their data) might be able to match personal to web data, perhaps with questionable results.
Perhaps this post is just being paranoid, but the article’s point that the public’s trust in Google may possibly be misplace is well taken.
PS: thanks Google for the free e-mail space, blog, picture software, search software, …