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GoogleSpy Explained...

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It turns out that Google indexing unknown pages in response to Opera usage is a known behavior. It still scares me, but apparently this is nothing new.

"If google ads are enabled in Opera, every time a user goes to a new page, a notice is sent to google with that page's address. If google has no cache of the page, then MediaPartners robot shows up to analyize the page for contextual advertising." says AMS_David in a WebmasterWorld.com forum.

The behavior is still disturbing. Opera's privacy policy specifically states that  "...no personal information is collected or shared..."

>>>more..."Opera Software has taken much care in the development so that user privacy and security are not compromised. No personal information is collected or shared, and providing ad profile information in the browser is strictly optional. The Opera user's Web usage is not tracked. What is recorded and shared with the advertising service provider is the user's interaction with the relative banner advertising."

But my browsing behavior *is* personal information and telling Google where I've been visiting goes well beyond sharing information about my "interaction with the relative banner advertising". Presumably the interaction they refer to would be me clicking on a banner in their browser. Paul's test indicates that Opera is sharing a lot more than what they are letting on. Google isn't necessarily at fault here as I thought earlier, but they aren't completely off the hook either. They must have some knowledge of how Opera is getting them this data.

I'm not crazy about what Opera appears to be doing. Software developers need to step up and stop gatoring their software. Selling out users to marketers as a band-aid for a bad business model can't continue to be acceptable behavior.

If they can't build a sustainable business model without selling out their customer, then maybe they shouldn't be in the business. I have a hard time believing that the browser market is so tough that they can't make an honest living giving their customers what they want at a price that they want to pay.

See this post as it first appeared on Blogware.

3 comments

Comments are closed - these are kept exactly as they were left.

  1. (name not saved), February 5, 2004

    I don't understand what information is being sent to Google that you didn't already know about.
    You already knew that Opera was serving up ads (from Google and/or other third parties) based on the content of the page you are viewing.
    This story reveals additional ways that Google is using that information, not additional information that's being sent to Google beyond what is obvious to anyone using the product.

  2. (name not saved), February 5, 2004

    Their representation of what they were collecting and how they are using it is inaccurate, at best. I'd say its closer to deceptive and misleading.

  3. (name not saved), February 5, 2004

    Perhaps. (I don't know what the representation was). But the same information would be collected (and given to Google) to show contextual ads in any case. The fact that Google is spidering new pages they discover is irrelevant.