Be (unpleasantly) alerted when your PC transmits data to Google. Be careful, the beeps follow one another very quickly.
Every Internet user, whether on a PC, tablet or smartphone, knows that data is regularly transmitted to tech giants and in particular to Google, which offers a search engine and powerful tools for the web. The mystery lies more in the type of information concerned and the frequency of their transmission to the Mountain View firm.
A developer and privacy defender, Bert Hubert, therefore decided to design an application to make users aware of the monumental amount of data collected by the American publisher.
With each send to Google, the PC beeps
This solution, dubbed Google Teller “, is responsible for beeping whenever Sundar Pichai’s group collects information. In a tweet, Bert Hubert shows how frequent the alerts are and that ultimately almost every user action is analyzed by Google.
Some are probably tempted to get overly annoyed by the reactions of this application and to deduce that we are being watched too much by Big Brother Google. It is nevertheless important to remember that most of these beeps are not representative of an express desire by the group to get their hands on all the user’s personal data.
Indeed, in order to offer certain functionalities such as semi-automatic completion, or quite simply to allow website owners to know their audience via Google Analytics in particular, information is necessarily collected by the search engine. This is without counting those that are raised in the context of malfunctions or with a view to improving services. Generally, Google in many cases targets queries made more than personal data, although obviously they are not totally excluded from the process.
Anyone curious about the extent to which Google collects data can download Bert Hubert’s solution on this dedicated page.
However, it is not compatible with all operating systems. It should theoretically be equipped with a computer running under a Linux distribution, even if some users have found a way to circumvent this limitation andinstall on a Mac. Amateurs abstain!