Monitored Alarm Systems

James Ball

found that the information that Google and Facebook have of it is worrying, but also comforting

To briefly state the obvious, the Internet giants are very large: Google is not alone in the world's largest search engine, is one of three major email providers, social networks, and the owner of the Blogger platform and the site of the world of video, YouTube. Facebook has social contacts, messages and photos wallposts over 750 million people.

Since this information could be used to sell things, access to government agencies or law (perhaps without a warrant, under legal changes), or - at least theoretically - picked up by hackers or others, it is reasonable to ask exactly how many Internet giants we know.

American users of these sites are out of luck: no legal rights under U.S. law for a company to provide all the information we hold about you. Users have a say in what companies are allowed to take, usually contained in the Terms of Service. But EU citizens are in a better position - in Europe, the rules of data protection, anyone may submit a written request to your complete and for a small fee, the corporation shall send, usually within 40 days

is an excellent opportunity to see exactly how Google and Facebook really know about us and all you need is a test subject. Perhaps an EU citizen who has been on Facebook since his arrival in the UK in 2005, which had a YouTube account for nearly as long, and was in the back when Gmail invitations to the consultation were some thing to pray, borrow and steal, rather than a nuisance. It should also be foolish enough to write about what they are digging in public. This left a clear case, proof of bad luck in the offices of The Guardian. Me

Things do not go to a great start with Google. The company has a main branch of the United States, Google Inc., and its subsidiaries in other countries. In the UK, which is Google UK Ltd Here's the catch: Google UK Ltd., which is subject to Community rules which allow you to access your data, does not. As Google says in a statement: "Please note that Google UK Ltd does not process personal data as part of Google services that are provided by Google Inc., a U.S. corporation incorporated whose address can be found in the Privacy Policy of Google. "

If we can find the address of Google Inc., which does not necessarily help: a spokesman for the regulator in the UK, the ICO has confirmed that the law of the EU on access requests in question do not extend to the parent company in the United States. This means that there is no real chance to recover data from Google users in this way.

Fortunately, Google is not totally useless. There are two tools that help display your information, a staff member to help me through. The first, Google Dashboard, lasts about three years and collects information from almost all Google services in one place. Another feature, the "Account Activity Report", has recently launched and displays the information from Google in my connections in the past month, including countries, browsers, platforms and how I used to service .

functioning of these tools in my work mail account (e-mail from The Guardian are administered by Google) is confusing, but not much. The dashboard can see that I am a member of certain groups within Google, and have a Blogger account used to collaborate with researchers from the riot of Twitter data.

data showing my work Gmail account has 877 contacts - and a list of them - makes me think, as a list of documents I open Google 398. The site also lists my e-mails sent and received later (in both cases, a "non issue" thread of the conversation with a colleague).

a little disconcerting is more of a history log of cat 177 of 500 conversations with colleagues. Google Chat is a convenient way to work in a large building, especially one full of journalists who seem to prefer online communication (as evidenced by Twitter activity) rather than in the flesh. But there is more than a little chatter going well. I make a mental note to see how to delete these files.

The great relief comes when I note that Google is not followed by Internet research I did in my work account, which for journalists around the world tends to incredibly Strange.

There was some relief from the dark though. Google insists that track your ads display - is the market leader in online advertising - not to extract user data, but rather just cookies, files anonymously monitor the websites you visit. Ads Preferences page of Google thinks I am interested in online videos, programs, reality TV, printers, Egypt, policy and England. Therefore, it is finished, I'm likely to be over 65 and men. I'm calmer than offended that Google did this more or less false.

Facebook is much more complicated. Unlike Google, Facebook deals with some data in the EU, through its Irish subsidiary, which makes it subject to access laws. These are currently under long - apparently up to three months -. Due to a high volume of requests for activists, so once again resorted to their own site tools

download tool main Facebook was familiar, even if a little embarrassing. A downloaded file that opens in strange, like a naked light Facebook, which lists all my friends, all posts on my wall ever done, by me or by others (some dating back nearly seven years n is not easy viewing), my messages and the small number (less than 10) of the photos I uploaded to the site itself.

Find best price for : --News----Holmes----YouTube----Blogger----Facebook----Google--