Google collects enough data on you to fill an 8ft stack of paper every TWO WEEKS… then it flogs the info to the highest bidder
Over 12 months the company reportedly stores enough browsing data to fill 569,555 pages of A4 paper
FROM where you last ate to when you left the house this morning - Google is tracking and recording your every move and selling the personal data to the highest bidder.
The internet giant keeps a detailed log of users' web browsing and location history stretching back nearly a decade, even when people think their privacy is protected in 'incognito' mode.
In just one year the company stores enough browsing data to fill 569,555 pages of A4 paper, an investigation by revealed.
The personal information - plundered from the Google-owned search engine, GPS system, maps, email and YouTube - registers everything from what time users leave for work, to where they go and what transport they use.
If printed and piled up, the pages would measure more than 189ft.
Some 23,731 pages worth of data were reportedly collected on one individual over just a fortnight, which would reach 7ft 9in if physically stacked.
Google uses the information to build advertising portfolios of its users' interests and then target their screens with products.
Businesses fork out millions to get their adverts shown to people who may be interested in their products, based on personalised digital data.
Many know that the products they see online are often based on their search history, but few are said to realise the 'sinister surveillance' techniques used by the company.
Web developer Dylan Curran, 24, requested all the information Google holds on him and was shocked by what he received.
He told the Mail: "I work in technology and had no idea Google was harvesting this amount of information.
"What was particularly shocking was it had a record of websites I looked at while I was in Google’s private, incognito mode.
"It also had files I had deleted from Google’s cloud service, including an old CV, as well as every photo I had taken on my phone.
"It’s wrong to trust any entity that big with so much information. They’re just trying to make money, and at some point someone is going to make a mistake."
Former Liberal Democrat leader Lord Ashdown urged Google to pay users annual fee for harvesting their data.
He told the newspaper: "I am shocked and horrified that the personal intrusion into our lives is so deep – if this was a communist state we would not be tracked so closely.
"I’m pretty tech-savvy and was not aware of this – it’s unbelievable.
"At the moment it is a Wild West and we’ve let it happen because we benefit from Google and don’t mind it making a bit of money. We get a free service but it is massively invasive.
"My proposition is we tell Google you can have my data but, should you make money from it, I require a share of the profit you make from my property – it’s the same with other property we own.
"If we don’t agree then Google could charge us for using their service instead.
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"Wouldn’t it be nice – every person in Britain would get a cheque once a year for £150 from Google.
"We’re a property-owning democracy and at the moment we give our data away free, without informed consent – Google is making millions and millions from this.
"They are the masters of the commercial universe."
An estimated 2.8 per cent of the world’s computer storage capacity is used to keep the data of Google’s three billion users, according to one expert.
Silkie Carlo, director of privacy campaign group Big Brother Watch, told the paper: "Google’s fun branding veils its frankly sinister surveillance machinery.
"It is most people’s portal to the internet, their maps, emails and phones. But not many people know that the amount of information Google collects about them is just enormous.
"It would be entirely possible to provide great services while protecting people’s privacy. But instead, Google harvests and centralises years of information on billions of people around the globe to exploit it for profit.
"Should any company have that much power? The risks to individuals and to society at large are incredibly daunting."
A Google spokesman encouraged concerned user to use its My Account facility to safeguard data.
He said: "The privacy and security of our users is of the utmost importance, which is why we have spent years making available tools like My Account so people can understand and control their Google data and make the privacy choices that are right for them.
"We encourage everyone to review My Account regularly, and 3.8 million people did in the UK in the last year.
"Your data makes things like Google Maps work better and more effectively, by helping to do things like recognising traffic patterns and help you find the quickest way home."
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