From Saul Hansell at the NYT:
Google acknowledges that it is now testing ways to use some of the data it has been gathering to better aim search ads at Web surfers, although it won’t say how.
Hansell continues (bold mine):
This is important because it marks the first time Google is using the store of data it collects about people to target its advertising.
Google is upfront that it places a cookie on the browser of all of its users. And it records the number of the cookie, along with what the user searches for and some other information.
A few years ago, Google changed its privacy policy to warn users that it might capture personal information about them for reasons that include “the display of customized content and advertising.” Yet despite this broad disclosure, Google has told me and others it doesn’t use the data about what people search for, or any other information they provide, in selecting ads.
Finally:
Google is quick to point out that some of these systems are not connected to each other. And most of the information it gets is not what is generally considered to be personally identifiable, like a name or e-mail address. But the issues are not so simple. Once a user chooses to provide personal information to Google, say by signing up for Gmail or Google Checkout, that information can be linked to much of the information that had been until that time collected anonymously.
This is the real singularity.
