Tech Blog

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Facebook may have been under fire for its confusing policies on privacy, but the elephant in the room might actually be Google. While Facebook may have botched the way it handles content you post onto its site, the rest of your web browsing habits probably have a lot to do with Google and how the company collects information on you.

Enter Google Alarm . This Firefox add-on is like a constant whistleblower that tells you every time data is being sent to Google’s servers when you’re surfing. Considering that Google services like Gmail, YouTube, Analytics, Adsense and Buzz usually start a chain reaction that starts when you visit those sites, or others that have code from those sites.

It may not be a whistle, but an alarm will sound each time Google starts collecting data. You even get a breakdown on the percentage of sites you visit that host code that may have originated from Google. The results might be surprising after you let it run for a couple of weeks. Whether or not the data being collected is something to be worried about when it comes to privacy isn’t really answered by this add-on.

Its main job is to just alert you to when something you’re doing is being sent Google’s way. You don’t really need to do much, either, since it runs in the background as an add-on rather than as a standalone app.

Is privacy with Google something you worry about? How do you monitor what kind of information streams over to Google every time you surf the web?