Tim: >> You haven't read the various concerns about Google and privacy, then? >> If you use Google and Gmail, and allow cookies, there's a fair bet that >> they can easily database you. After all, databasing is their business. Chris Mohler: > We're quickly headed off-topic, but what makes you think Yahoo, MSN, > et al aren't doing the same thing? I never said that *they* didn't. Databasing is their business, too. What I took issue with, was David's, "anonymity isn't really an issue with search engines. They don't record who you are," comment. While I'm yet to see a search engine that you directly log onto, there's enough ways that they *can* record who you are. Particularly Google and the three that you've mentioned, simply because they all, also, provide webmail and instant messaging services. And while there's no onus to provide true information, many will, and with enough databasing you could track back someone's pseudonym to somewhere they didn't use it. Google's verification via your mobile phone trick is one way. So to be brief, I'm not saying that they "do" (since I don't have any information to prove that one way or another), but they *potentially* can. -- (Currently testing FC5, but still running FC4, if that's important.) Don't send private replies to my address, the mailbox is ignored. I read messages from the public lists.
