Googling Security: How Much Does Google Know About You?

What Does Google Know about You? And Who Are They Telling?
When you use Google’s “free” services, you pay, big time–with personal information about yourself. Google is making a fortune on what it knows about you…and you may be shocked by just how much Google does know. Googling Security is the first book to reveal how Google’s vast information stockpiles could be used against you or your business–and what you can do to protect yourself.
Unlike other books on Google hacking, this book covers information you disclose when using all of Google’s top applications, not just what savvy users can retrieve via Google’s search results. West Point computer science professor Greg Conti reveals the privacy implications of Gmail, Google Maps, Google Talk, Google Groups, Google Alerts, Google’s new mobile applications, and more. Drawing on his own advanced security research, Conti shows how Google’s databases can be used by others with bad intent, even if Google succeeds in its pledge of “don’t be evil.”
Uncover the trail of informational “bread crumbs” you leave when you use Google search
How Gmail could be used to track your personal network of friends, family, and acquaintances
How Google’s map and location tools could disclose the locations of your home, employer, family and friends, travel plans, and intentions
How the information stockpiles of Google and other online companies may be spilled, lost, taken, shared, or subpoenaed and later used for identity theft or even blackmail
How the Google AdSense and DoubleClick advertising services could track you around the Web
How to systematically reduce the personal information you expose or give away
This book is a wake-up call and a “how-to” self-defense manual: an indispensable resource for everyone, from private citizens to security professionals, who relies on Google.
Preface xiii
Acknowledgments xix
About the Author xxi
Chapter 1: Googling 1
Chapter 2: Information Flows and Leakage 31
Chapter 3: Footprints, Fingerprints, and Connections 59
Chapter 4: Search 97
Chapter 5: Communications 139
Chapter 6: Mapping, Directions, and Imagery 177
Chapter 7: Advertising and Embedded Content 205
Chapter 8: Googlebot 239
Chapter 9: Countermeasures 259
Chapter 10: Conclusions and a Look to the Future 299
Index 317