That isn't fraud, that's Googles selfish profit making pickle
So, what exactly does my searching for Hemorrhoids at 7.15pm on Wednesday the 14th of March 2007 and then clicking on the wikipedia link have to do with fraud.. in ANY way? They don't need to profile people as much. I understand a certain amount, but not keeping every single letter everyone's ever entered, how long they were on the page, where they clicked next etc, FOREVER.
" IP addresses are not personal data "
Yes they are.
It is not public information therefore it is obviously personal data. It is only available to whoever we give it out to. (Or whoever goes out of their way to trace it, and even then, it is hard to do unless you have direct contact with them through emails, IM etc and are basically trusted enough to be in the position where you have potential access to it.) If you meet someone in a pub and give them your full name they can look up your address and your phone number but not your IP address.
If your phone number or address was attached to pieces of paper lying around the streets, which had things written on it like your medical problems, who you fancy, what your sexual orientation is, what your political views are, that you're cheating on your partner...Well, it's pretty obvious that this situation where it could be linked so easily to you would NOT HAPPEN. Your phone number would be something private you would not give out, since one day someone can easily find a piece of paper in the street and match it up.
If it's not personal information and can't identify a person then why do you need to involve law enforcement just to request the IP address of someone who hacked your Myspace account (for example) ? TheRegister logs our IP addresses but is not allowed to give them out unless it involves court.
" Google does hold e-mail, passwords, billing information and other things for a great many people. "
It holds those for very clear reasons. People are asking Google to hold emails so they can read them anytime they have internet access. THEY ASKED THEM TO HOLD THEIR EMAILS. People choose to store their card details on Paypal so they can log in when they want and pay for things quickly and easily. The whole point of signing up is to get your details held by the company so you can pay stuff through them. Passwords need to be stored in order for an ACCOUNT TO FUNCTION, otherwise the 'doors' would all be open and it'd be a free for all.
YOU MAKE NO SENSE.
There is absolutely NO reason for search terms to be forever linked to the individual who did it. Please tell me why some of you are so hell bent on the information being kept? If it doesn't matter that much to you, then why don't you just stay out of it, since it's not affecting you in any way (yet..).
Biting the hand that feeds IT
