Google - using your info!

(sorry, I don't know what's up with the formatting - can't seem to fix it) Ok, so I just found out some frightening information regarding information on the web. I know that we all get a little nervous about our information being other there, particularly that stuff that we put up voluntarily. I'm talking about information we post or put on social networking sites or even when we buy stuff. Do this, go to www.google.com/ads/preferences Now, you will find that google has constructed a "guess" of who you are based on your web browsing habits. I looked at mine, it composed an accurate guess of my age, my gender, and my interests. Now, I understand that to their defense they are collecting this information so that they can cater ads to your interests and preferences. At the same time I find this a little freaky that they do this without telling you. I always thought that they ads google showed you were based on just what you were searching for in that moment or based on the content on the page. This goes a little too far for me. The problem is, I love google. I always use it. I'm using google chrome right now. Google owns blogger in which I am writing this! Basically google owns me. Here's the good news. You can remove those "preferences" and categories so that google will stop doing that. The bad news is that does that mean that they are going to stop collecting your information? I don't know. They do it based on a cookie that collects your information. Here's the ridiculous thing--if you want to completely opt out of all this, you have to install this "plug-in" cookie that stops Google from getting that information. How fishy is that? To remove one cookie, you install another? Hmmmm. Seems like they are going to just collect information in a different way... Google is a part of another thing that basically does the same thing, so you might want to opt out there too: http://www.networkadvertising.org/managing/opt_out.asp I just thought I'd share this since it's news to me! What do you think? Am I suddenly getting paranoid or is this a little big-brother-ish to anyone?