Five Things Google Probably Knows About You
The majority of us use Google. It opens up the Internet, lets us explore and learn. It helps us expand our minds. And in return, it’s collected information about you.
That much, we know. It’s common knowledge. A phrase that has quite recently become everyday is: “If you’re not paying for the product, you are the product.” It’s not always true, but when it comes to Google, there’s more than an element of believability.
Google isn’t providing all of those free services out of the goodness of its heart.
Naturally, the amount Google knows about you depends on how much you throw out onto the web and how much you actually use that search engine.
It’s easy to be paranoid too. So what does Google actually know about you?
You Are A Demographic
When it boils down to it, Google is a business and businesses need to know their customers. This means you’re slotted into a demographic slot: basically, that’s your gender and age.
Businesses build profiles of their target market; search for a publication’s writer’s guidelines/media kits, for instance, and you’ll likely find a document which details who a journalist should aim their piece at. Rather depressingly, demographics are ranked, so one classification is more important to aim for than others. The New Yorker even sets out kits for print, web and tablets, and the amount of information they know about their readers is astonishing.
In the UK, The Sun newspaper claims to reach over 6 million readers a day, 32% of whom are classed as ABC1. This, for most, is the key demographic, encompassing upper and lower middle classes; their occupations are typically high-earning – and that’s what makes them so important. Disposable income makes them perfect for prospective advertisers.
That’s why Google wants to know about you: to tailor adverts to your needs, to tempt you in, to make you interested in their promotions.
Your Interests Are Google’s Interests
