Searching the web seems innocent enough right?  Well it might suprise you to know that the major search engines most likley know who you are, what your political beliefs are, what your religious beliefs are, your interests and hobbies and even your sexual preferance!

How do they know all this?  It's simple, data retention.  Every time you search using a search engine, more than likley it is being recorded and stored.  Google would have to be the worst offender of this massive invasion of privacy, and it has recently got the search giant into trouble with the EU (European Union).  The EU claims that this mass storage of private information is against the EU's data retention and privacy laws, and Google has ammended it privacy policy to try and stop the outcry.  Google used to hold onto your information indefinately, now they will only hold onto it for 12 to 18 months (which has not stopped the EU moving forward).  The EU states that any storage of personally identifiable information is against the privacy act.

So what do they use this stored information for?  Well no-one really knows, and that's part of the problem.  If this information falls into the wrong hands, who know's what they could do with it.  I reflect back to WW2, and what happened when a certain political party had access to certain information.  Now day's the information would be even more orgainsed and handed to them on a silver platter.

Well, really their could be all sorts of legitmate reasons for the information storage, to better software and user experiance for example.  But should that come at the cost of your privacy?

Another rumour that has been spread throughout the net is that Google is "in bed with the CIA".  This arouse out of the fact Matt Cutts (one of Google's head men) was once employed by the NSA (National Security Agency), and was once given high security clearance.  So is the US government hand in hand with Google and the information Google gathers on a daily basis?  They claim they aren't but if they are not, what will stop a court granting a supenas?

Well who know's really?  But what i can tell you is that since the EU claims became public regarding Google, they have lost some of their prized marketshare.  People are turning to alternatives for their searching needs.  For example in the UK some users are switching to websearch.com, an engine that allows you to search all the major search engines at once and does not allow them to store your information, and neither do they!

In the last month Websearch's traffic has doubled and they are expecting more searchers are on their way!  They are quickly upgrading the engine so it will be able to handle the influx.

So remember, things online change daily, who was once the goliath can quickly tumble and new giants are ready and waiting to take their place, similar to AltaVista's downfall and Google's rise.

Have a look at the picture below, it is one of Google's many data centers, and keep in mind that each building is over the size of a football field!