How much data does Google capture on us all?

I came across a fascinating blog post on seomoz.org the other day ‘The Evil Side of Google‘, have a read as it details the methods Google uses to capture data as well as listing what Google does with all that data. Some eye opening reading.

When you read the list of Google acquisitions, you start to understand the breadth of the data Google has captured. If I look at how many Google applications I regularly use, the list includes Google Reader, Gmail, iGoogle, Picasa, YouTube, Google Desktop, Google Analytics, DoubleClick (by default), Google Maps, Google Mobile, Google Earth, Google Checkout…aaagh, I’m such a Google!

Where privacy concerns come into play are when companies such as Viacom are suing Google and requesting all YouTube user histories are handed over. Read the entire US court order here. I suppose it’s no different to any other private data that any organisation we interact with captures on us, but Google’s strength is in the breadth of daily data that is captured on Internet users, which puts the company in a very unique position….which does make you think?!