What Google Knows About You Is Absolutely Terrifying

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If something is free, then you are the product.

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It's a quote attributed to Richard Serra.

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And I think that there's no greater

example of that than Google.

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Google is an ecosystem,

is almost entirely free.

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Soup to nuts.

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Which means that within

Google, you are the product.

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Which makes all the sense in the world.

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They're selling you to advertisers.

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And the more data Google has on you, the

richer the product that they're selling.

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The more information that they're able

to append which is, the point of this

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video is really understanding Google

as an ecosystem, because you can't

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use Google as an advertiser until you

understand Google as an ecosystem.

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So if you were to ask somebody off in

the streets, you pull somebody off the

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street and say, hey, what is Google?

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Their immediate response is going to

say, well, Google is a search engine.

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Which is true, kind of.

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Google is a search engine.

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And if you think of Google as a search

engine, That alone becomes terrifying

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when you start to think about what

it is that Google knows about you.

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As a search engine, Google knows

things like your semantic index, how

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you search, your relative level of

education, what you're afraid of, what

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diseases you might have, things that

you're concerned with or worried about.

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Google knows your knowledge graph.

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Think about that for a moment.

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Google knows where you are

ignorant, where you're wrong.

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And it does that.

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Because everything you've searched

or ever will search is being

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appended to your user record.

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Even things that you're searching

for in an incognito window.

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Google doesn't say it won't

track those things, it just

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doesn't show up in your history.

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Your search record is being used in

order to identify who you are, what you

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do, what you're going to do, and allow

Google's predictive engine to take place.

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So that alone, you're like, oh my

goodness, gosh, Big Brother's watching us.

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Yes, of course.

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But Google's not just search.

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That's where this conversation

gets really, really interesting.

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Google is also YouTube.

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YouTube is the second largest

search engine on the planet.

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It's the largest video

repository in existence.

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And it's where people go to

a mote to learn, to listen

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to music to research things.

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So the Google ecosystem

has expanded, many fold.

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When you think about the reach

and permeation of YouTube.

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And that, again, is being

appended to your record.

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Everything you do inside of YouTube,

Google knows your interests.

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and you know how you're gonna

vote what it is that you're paying

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attention to, how to piss you off.

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Google's not just

YouTube, it's also Gmail.

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It's the, largest free email utility on

the planet, becoming one of the largest

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enterprise utilities on the planet.

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Google reads every single email you send

and receive, emails and attachments.

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And you might say, well, custom,

I'm safe because I don't use Gmail.

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You're not safe because you

communicate with people that use Gmail.

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Guaranteed.

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Which means that Google, by proxy, can

track the things that you're saying, too.

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the conversations you're having,

who you're talking to, who you

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lie to, whether or not you...

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What your tax returns look

like, if those have been sent

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to you by your CPA recently.

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You know, what prescription

medicine you might be taking.

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Event invites that you've

received, and RSVP'd to.

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But Google's not just Gmail, it's

also the entire Google app suite.

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So think like Google Docs, Google

Sheets, Google Presentations, which

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I'm actually using for this video.

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Google knows everything that you've

ever saved inside a Google Drive.

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Google knows that book that you've

been working on, probably has all

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your social security information.

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Google knows what my children

look like in Google Photos.

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It's crazy.

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And it's able to track their progress.

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Google, my eldest son's name is Sammy.

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And Google will show me montages

of Sammy starting from birth

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to he is now 8 years old.

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And it's able to identify

that it's the same person.

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And when I upload photos, it tags

Sammy without me asking Google

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to tag Sammy, which is funny.

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Freaking insane.

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It's also Google Maps.

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Everybody, regardless of your OS, probably

has Google Maps in their pocket, which

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means Google knows where you work, where

you live, where you play, where your

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kids go to school, whether or not you

speed, if it takes 30 minutes to get from

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point A to point B and you get there in

25 minutes, you get car insurance ads.

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Google's also Android, which is the

largest operating system on the planet.

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Google knows who you call, who calls

you, who you text, who you ignore,

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what apps you download, and you

think, well, I don't use Android.

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That's okay.

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You communicate with

people who use Android.

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So again, by proxy, Google

is also tracking you.

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Google's Chrome, which is the largest

browser, With currently 60 percent market

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share, according to W3 counter which means

it knows every website that you visit,

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what you do on those sites, how frequently

you go to those sites, what you bookmark,

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what you cache, what you copy when you're

trying to hide Google's, the Google

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display network, which reaches 90 percent

of all internet users on the planet.

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65 percent of whom are

reached on a daily basis.

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That sources think with Google,

Google is, and this is maybe the

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scariest one, Google analytics.

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Which is on nearly 90 percent of

all known websites, or it was before

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the European Union threw its fit.

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And it, which means Google knows

everything that's ever been done,

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even behind, firewalls and gates

and logins and to get really...

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Google knows who's HIV positive,

who's in Narcotics Anonymous, who's

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about to declare bankruptcy, who's

cheating on their spouse, what

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kind of pornography you watch.

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Google knows everything there is to know

about everything you've ever done online.

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Which results in this.

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told me I was pregnant before I knew

I was pregnant, based solely on my

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search and communication patterns.

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This is a case study, public 2015.

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From April 2015, this is 8 years

ago, Moore's Law says that machine

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computing power doubles every 18

months or something like that.

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So what does Google know?

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Now, Google can tell you you're

going to do something before

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you know you're going to do it.

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Obviously.

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And advertisers have been doing

this for quite a bit of time.

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I remember I used to advertise

with Clear Channel Radio through

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another business that I owned.

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And they came...

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With this big binder of this demographic

information, and they had all of these

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catalytic events, and they knew if

you just had a baby, within six months

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you were going to buy a new car.

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They knew that for a fact.

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And it was like this ubiquitous truth,

and they explained, looking at all

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the data that they had compiled,

it was, you know, 90 percent of

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people who have a baby buy a car.

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Those little catalytic events.

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Well, that's...

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What people have been able to

pull together using observable

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data in the human mind.

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What does a machine learning mechanism

with incalculable amounts of data on every

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human being on the planet, what does it

end up being able to reverse engineer?

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from little teeny minute things to, oh,

I know people buy blue light blocking

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glasses as soon as they've read this

article or seen this documentary.

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Two really big things, too.

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I actually know what it would take

to get somebody to get married.

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You know, you can take somebody who never

wants to get married, but if they're

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exposed to this, have this life event,

do that, and then, participate at this,

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that person's going to get married.

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And what's interesting to

think about is two tiers.

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Number one, Google can track who those

events are happening to, so it knows,

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okay, this person's, wasn't accessible

to marriage prior to, is accessible now.

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Number two, and this is where things

get really terrifying, what's to

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stop them from forcing the event?

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What's to stop Google from going,

Well, gosh, you know, we have a

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bunch of wedding dresses to sell.

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Let's go get more people married.

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So I'm going to start encouraging

you to read this article, watch this

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documentary, view this thing, join

this club, travel to this place.

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And I know that those experiences

in that sequence catalyze, you

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know, your biological clock ticking,

and now you want to get married.

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Or whatever, by a peloton.

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Marriage maybe is a bad example, but

Google knows the path to purchase.

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It knows everything that

you're doing online.

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It's able to track everything, and

it's able to deliver you information.

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any level of analysis.

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our ability to be

manipulated is incalculable.

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And as an advertiser, the

reason I'm making this video

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is you have to know that.

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You have to know how Google works in

order to rely on the machine learning.

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You have to know how Google works in

order to rely on the machine learning.

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Because if you let Google go...

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Now, some of this is, you're

like, gosh, why would we use this?

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This feels like we're

using the forces of evil.

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And that's, some of that's like, it's

like, well, it's a balance of risks.

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You know, and maybe even up to you.

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Make sure you're using this for good.

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You know, this is bad in the wrong

hands, good in the right hands.

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But there's no question that we can

target people according to things that

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we shouldn't be able to target them.

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According to, you can target

people according to their sexual

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orientation based on the apps that

they have downloaded on their phone.

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It's not right, but a

practical reality right now.

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And so, as an advertiser, you need

to know that this is possible, and

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then you need to know how to use it.

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And it also means, very often, you have

to, if we're dealing with, massive

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amounts of data, and the larger your

audience, the more data you're dealing

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with, you have to give Google the

opportunity to kind of identify the path

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to purchase that you're working with.

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So.

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Anyway, I hope I haven't

scared you too much.

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Or maybe it's good that I have, but the

prerequisite to using Google properly

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is knowing exactly how it works.

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And so that's why I'm shooting this video.

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Like, comment, subscribe.

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I'll see you tomorrow.