#928 Search and Be Searched

I worry about my dependence on Google. And about what Google’s doing while I depend on it. I used it the other day to go to some website or another in the pursuit of a fact for one of these essays. While I was at the website I couldn’t help but be distracted by this flashing advertisement.
That’s one thing about web ads. They do stuff. The good old newspaper was confined to two types of ads—Black and White and Color. Occasionally you’d see white writing on a black background but that was as flashy as they could get.
Now ads really are flashy because the actually flash. And jiggle, and vibrate, and have little dancing people. Very distracting.
This free stuff is annoying.
Anyhow, the flashing ad was for Classmates dot com--where those who still have a hankering for their worse-than-they-remember high school days can try to finally hook up with the prom queen. She’s there all right. But after a lifetime of heavy drinking, she’s not held together as well as one might hope.
What got me about this ad was it was flashing all the Olympia area high schools. And only the Olympia area high schools. What a coincidence, I thought. I live in the Olympia Area. And then my brain—wait a minute—late hit—got slammed by a piano dropping from a third story epiphany.
They know that.
The website knows I’m from Olympia. Google knows I’m from Olympia. So much for web anonymity.
If they are divulging even that amount of place recognition from the bowels of my browser, where I have never to my knowledge inserted that information, then everything about me is a hop, skip, and fatal jump away from being collected in a dossier for all and sundry.
Well not all and sundry, just the government and anyone with sufficient cash to tap the data stream or grease the palms of the I-T-unscrupulous.
Little do they know, I may live in Olympia, but I didn’t go to high school here.
And my high school burned down. So my permanent record was destroyed. So type that in your search box and Google it.
America, ya gotta love it.