Google can pull off some impressive tricks, such as correctly guessing what type of information you want in a search before you finish asking; showing you news you're interested in; letting you know when there's heavy traffic on the way to your usual Friday night hangout spot; and plenty more. However, the trade-off is that Google has to know a lot about you.
It's a trade-off many people don't want to make,
especially when you get into areas like your smartphone being able to recognize you from your walk and voice. Of course, that's in the future, but what we're going to reveal today might already be more than you're comfortable with.
It's no secret that Google monitors and stores a lot of information about you, such as your
search history. It does this for two reasons: service improvement and targeted advertising. Unfortunately, they're tied together.