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Spyware is a [expletive-deleted]!

We all hate it, yet we all have it. It’s a total invasion of privacy and it leaves (less computer savy) users feeling violated. Best case scenario, you end up with a ridiculous toolbar or some annoying pop-ups. Maybe your homepage gets hijacked. Bad case, your computer crashes or you need to reformat your harddrive. Worst case, you have your sensitive information stolen and possibly even your identity.

Now finally (FINALLY!!) someone is doing something about it. Arkansas Sen. Mark Pryor introduced a bill yesterday that would make it illegal for companies to install spyware on PCs without user knowledge or consent. As reported by Information Week, the Southern Democrat is targeting hijacking, spam, denial of service, pop-ups, changing default home page and security settings, Web proxies, toolbar setups, etc. This new bill would allow the Federal Trade Commission to step in and impose fines and penalties on those to continue to ruin the internet, our computers, and unfortunately in some cases, our lives.

It wasn’t until I received my Google Adwords Certification last week that I learned the ugly truth: Google reads your email to determine the Adwords ads to target within your Gmail account.

This is an excerpt from Lesson 1c: Ad Distribution in the Google Adwords Learning Center; and I quote…

The AdWords system analyzes the content of emails viewed within the Gmail interface, and matches ads to this content. Emails about upcoming vacations may, for example, display advertisements for local attractions, lodging, or businesses.

I wont go into the specifics, but obviously, there are some major privacy issues here. I know that technically it’s the software that reads the emails; but technically, this software can store and regurgitate your information on-demand if the government or anyone so desired.

The fact that Google is a store house of private user information is the basis for a huge SEO debate that has gone on for quite some time now. This is the debate over whether to use Google Analytics. It’s nifty, it’s free, and it can be used by Google to procure more sales in your industry by disclosing your stats and keywords for others to target and outbid . Some consider it a necessary evil; the cost of doing (free) business and essentially getting what you pay for. Others just boycott the package altogether ‘Enemy of the State’ style.

Yes Google rocks! But at what cost?