What Are the Dangers of Using Google?

 If information is out there and accessible on the Internet, it will be indexed and searchable by search engines like Google. The world’s largest search engine, Google, indexes extremely large amounts of data to accurately produce search engine results. Much of this data can be personal in nature and even accessible to third parties unbeknown to the user. It can be an extremely useful tool for finding information on just about anything, including personal data that can be exploited by hackers and those with malicious intent.

Google implements “webcrawling” software to troll all sites on the internet, as well as all services used by its user base, like email, chat, documents. Webcrawling software indexes everything, and cannot determine what information is private, encrypted, or potentially damaging to the users or others if publicly released. This information is stored and used by Google to target advertising, as well as sell to third parties. The danger is, all of this data is sitting on a server somewhere, at the mercy of Google’s security, and potentially accessible by hackers.
Google stores everything. Using Google on a public computer, such as at a library or university, leaves your activity vulnerable to succeeding users, as well as premeditated attacks. Google Desktop, a popular download that indexes all activity on a user’s computer, including offline activity, can be installed on a public computer and minimized or hid by a potential hacker. After the computer is used for a period of time, potentially exposing private information, the hacker can return and then access all of the user activity that took place on that machine, targeting sensitive information by searching for things such as “credit card.” When using public computers, make sure Google Desktop is not running, and to delete the cache, cookies and browsing history before logging off. If possible, public computers should only be used for browsing, instead of email, banking or other personal activities.
Just like everyone else, hackers can use Google to find the information they want, as well as re-index it for other hackers to easily find. Entire online databases of easy targets have been revealed and shared by hackers. If any of your sensitive information is posted anywhere on the internet, especially thorough Google searches and services, Google will be a resource for hackers to locate it and exploit it.
Mobile services such as the new Google Latitude can create dangerous privacy concerns. The service, used to keep tabs on friends and popular locations, automatically accesses the user’s mobile device and records/broadcasts this location information. If mobile phone security is compromised, the service could be installed on a device without the user’s knowledge, allowing for unauthorized or even potentially dangerous individuals to track their every move.

Find Out More...!