Google's G1 phone makes it easy to track surfing habits

The new Google phone, dubbed the G1, has been touted as a working man's smartphone — a cheap, Web-friendly wireless device that can make life easier for millions of consumers.
The G1, in many ways, embodies the best and the worst of the mobile Web. The device is based on the new Android operating system, whose development was overseen by Google. More than 30 companies participated in the development of Android, but Google had decision-making authority over design, engineering and more.

The G1 is high-performance and incredibly easy to use. It comes preloaded with familiar Google applications, allowing users to reach, with one click, some of its most popular services: Google Maps (MyLocation, satellite, traffic and Street View), Gmail (e-mail), YouTube, Google Calendar and Google Talk (IM service).

It also has a touch-screen, traditional qwerty keyboard and a 3.2-megapixel camera. Music player? Of course. You can also add and subtract applications.

On the downside, once you fire up the G1, you're on Google's radar — whether you like it or not.

To use the device, users must set up a Google account. The registration process creates a "personal identifier" — basically, a number that Google uses to store information about you, which Google does not consider to be personal information.

It enables Google to field your search queries quickly when you're on the run. It also gives Google access to your contact lists, IMs, e-mails, personal calendar, social networking and video downloading — the videos you'd fess up to publicly, as well as the ones you might not. As for all those "personal photos" swapped with pals on Facebook, MySpace and Twitter: Google can grab those, too.

Everything gets crammed into your personal "file," so to speak, along with a lot of other stuff — such as where you bank, shop and cruise on the Web when you're lonely, bored or just in the mood for a little fun.

You can't see what information is collected

Once your information has been collected and stored, there's no way to get rid of it. You can't see what's been collected or have it expunged. It's Google's for as long as it wants to hold onto it.