3 ms·

Disregarding the likelihood of this scenario panning out, what is special about the combination of purchase and search history? In your scenario just having pur

• swombat 15y ago
  I guess the difference is the "one stop shop" nature of it. With everything linked onto one site, all you need is for that future oppressive government to have access to Google's archives to know everything about you - whether it was in the form of a purchase, a search, an email, a calendar item, a shared document subsequently deleted, a visit on a site with doubleclick or google ads, etc. It's a totalitarian regime's wet dream come true. "I don't like X anymore, give me all the dirt on him." "Here you go." Or even, criticising the bundling together of any multiple services: "The town of X is too libertarian. Send everyone a file outlining the illegal things each of them has done over the last 20 years online which would make them liable to immediate internment." Even just the fact that google owns AdSense could be a problem from this point of view: "Round up all those who ever arrived on a google-monitored page via hacker-news links. People from that place are 98% more likely to be subversive. I want them all shot." It's not paranoia if they really are out to get you. And history shows that sometimes, they are.