Google + Gmail + Orkut + Blogger= Complete Profile
I have gone on record stating that I believe that the privacy concerns over Gmail are being overblown. I still believe this to be the case, but lets take a second and think about all the personal data that Google is amassing about its users. I will use myself as an example:

- As you can see I am using Blogger and Blogspot to manage this blog. Google has access to all of my writing (and hence a good idea of my interests) in this blog both through Blogger and it's indexing Bot (Not that I actually think I am getting indexed).

- I use Google as my primary search engine. As I have read and been told by friends, Google keeps a cookie on my machine with a history of my searches... this is a lot of information about what I am looking for on the net.

- I don't use Gmail, but if I did use it, Google would have access to my contact list and all my email data. In addition it would have access to any information I need to provide to just use the service.

- I am an active user of Orkut, and it was this application that actually got me thinking today. Orkut has feature called communities. These communities are for people with similar interests to share thoughts, information, schedule events, etc. Yesterday, Orkut rolled out a feature within communities called "related communities". For example, as a member of the "Bloggers" community, it lets me know that there are related communities called: "Moblogs", "BlogShares", "Fan O Feedster", "Blogtalkers", etc. The rumor within the "Orkut Design" community is that these related communities are based off of overlapping memberships of various members. So now Orkut not only has a good sense of what my interests are, but I am willing to bet they could use all the data they are collecting from Orkut to accurately predict how attractive other communities would be to me.

I have knowingly signed up and given Google all the information I just listed above, but as I sit back and look at the big picture, WOW do they have a ton of information about me. I have had numerous interactions with Google and I believe their employees really do live by the slogan "Do no evil". I see this mantra as Googles way of saying we won't do to users what Microsoft has... we will not lock in users and stifle innovation. I just hope that as time moves forward, they are able to keep the "Do no evil" mantra as a serious criteria when making business decisions. I am sure Bill and the boys up in Redmond never set out to do any evil either. If the recent backlash against Gmail has taught Google anything, it is that they really need to start thinking more seriously about privacy issues and ensuring users that they will continue to "do no evil".