allisonmckinney posted the question Do you feel that there is an infringement on one's right to privacy with ads that are targeted from Google?
I believe that above all arguments the constitution of our nation must remain the absolute law, and any attempt to change it must be taken with extreme caution and with major support from the people. While not strictly mentioned in the constitution the right to privacy has been decided by the supreme court to be a right of the people. Google has become very good at determining private matters of its users to a point where they are able to use this information to place targeted advertisements in front of them. While I do not have a problem with advertisements even though they can become annoying, I do have a problem with a company keeping a digital profile of my google account that contains private information about myself.
The way Google gathers data on its users is through keeping records of IP addresses, cookies used, websites visited, and many other things. Google uses these tracking technologies to determine location, emails, phone numbers, payment methods such as credit cards, and even personal info such as names, photos, videos, and identity. Identity theft is a serious crime and will land the offender in prison. Yet it seems as if google is able to do this on a massive scale without repercussions.
While I am not certain what else Google does with its user's data besides targeted ads, I don't believe they have their user's best interests at heart when gathering this intel. The internet is a largely unknown place for the general population, and maintaining the privacy of one's identity is very important in this day and age where identity is attached to a number. While it may seem like google is only doing targeted advertisements with people's data, just the fact that one's identity can be discovered just from a handful of google searches and visited websites is a big issue. This theft of information by Google must be stopped or users of the internet have a higher risk of theft of identity and private data.
