KEY POINTS:
Google, the world's biggest search engine, is to create the most comprehensive database of personal information ever assembled - with the ability to tell people how to run their lives.
In a mission statement that raises the spectre of an internet Big Brother, Google has revealed details of
how it intends to organise and control the world's information.
The company's chief executive, Eric Schmidt, said during a visit to Britain this week: "The goal is to enable Google users to be able to ask the question such as 'What shall I do tomorrow?' and 'What job shall I take?' "
Speaking at a conference organised by Google, he said : "We are very early in the total information we have within Google. The algorithms [software] will get better and we will get better at personalisation."
Google's declaration of intent was publicised at the same time it emerged that the company had also invested £2 million ($5.45 million) in a human genetics firm called 23andMe. The combination of genetic and internet profiling could prove a powerful tool in the battle for greater understanding of the behaviour of an online service user.
This year Google's competitor Yahoo unveiled its own search technology, known as Project Panama, which monitors internet visitors to its site to build a profile of their interests.
Privacy protection campaigners are concerned that the trend towards sophisticated internet tracking and the collating of a giant database represents a real threat, by stealth, to civil liberties.
That concern has been reinforced by Google's $3.1 billion ($4.26 billion) bid for DoubleClick, a company that helps build a detailed picture of someone's behaviour by combining its records of web searches with the information from DoubleClick's "cookies", software it places on users' machines to track sites they visit.
The Independent has now learned that the body representing Europe's data protection watchdogs has written to Google requesting more information about its information-retention policy.
The search engine has already said it plans to impose a limit on the period it keeps personal information.
A spokesman for the Information Commissioner's Office, the UK agency responsible for monitoring data legislation, confirmed it had been part of the group of organisations, known as the Article 29 Working Group, which had written to Google.
It is understood the letter asked for more detail about Google's policy on the retention of data.
The Information Commissioner's spokeswoman added: "I can't say what was in it, only that it was written in response to Google's announcement that it will hold information for no more than two years."
Ross Anderson, professor of security engineering at Cambridge University and chairman of the Foundation for Information Policy Research, said there was a real issue with "lock in" where Google customers find it hard to extricate themselves from the search engine because of the interdependent linkage with other Google services, such as iGoogle, Gmail and YouTube.
He also said internet users could no longer effectively protect their anonymity as the data left a key signature.
"A lot of people are upset by some of this. Why should an angst-ridden teenager who subscribes to MySpace have their information dragged up 30 years later when they go for a job as say editor of the Financial Times?"
The Information Commissioner's spokeswoman said because of the voluntary nature of the information, the commission had no plans to take any action against the databases.
- INDEPENDENT
