Entry Number One : Google Paranoia?

Google.

Immediately when hearing that word we think either 'search engine,' or 'the nifty little search engine that was made into a verb.'

Being just a common Canadian Citizen (With political background) I have never really taken into account just exactly how controlling and massive corporations, i.e. Google, can be. The topic at hand here, bringing about this Google Paranoia, is exactly how far does the hand of Google reach into our personal and public lives.

A little too far, some may say.

I personally find it a little uncomfortable knowing that a huge Search Engine (because that is how it is viewed by a majority of people) can look back into our history and know exactly what we have been searching over the past up to two years. Although legislation is in the process of being passes limiting it up to 18 months, that is still a lot of time to sift through someone's history and manipulate advertisements on one's computer that are specifically geared towards how this person uses the internet. Whether it be for high-school science projects, or for a mischevious teenagers late-night rendezvous, this information should not be leaked into the Information Banks of a massive company to be used as a profiting mechanism. There just seems to be something wrong here, and I am not the only one thinking so.

Although privacy activists and public policy makers are currently in the process of limiting the actual amount of time that this behemoth can look into our personal lives, there still strikes clear a few questions that have not yet been answered by anyone - since when did it become ok for a company to reach this far into our personal lives? and why do we make any profit off our own browsing history?