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Home / News / Google Screenwise gives you cash for web tracking

Google Screenwise gives you cash for web tracking

Your endless refreshes on Facebook are worth big dollar to the search engine maestros

Fancy raking in a US$5 Amazon gift card every three months? Well, anyone in America who’s over 13, has a Google account and is willing to download a Chrome plug-in to track all their web use can get just that with a voluntary new programme from Google.

Sound scary? Even though you’re surrendering your private browsing history to them, Google won’t link this up to you as an individual so don’t worry about there being a virtual box with your name on it. What Google can do is sell what it learns from everyday people to anyone including advertisers, publishers and universities.

A second project involves Google hooking up with a survey company called Knowledge Networks and sending out actual routers to Americans (for now) who are interested in a $100 initial incentive followed by $20 a month. We’re guessing this will track all data downloaded or uploaded via your browser.

Both of these would be equivalent to someone looking over your shoulder everytime you went on the internet – but without the heavy breathing and stupid YouTube vid suggestions. Would we mind? Maybe. Is this Google’s next big cash cow? Almost certainly.

Sign up to Google Screenwise here.

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Profile image of Dan Grabham Dan Grabham Editor-in-Chief

About

Dan is Editor-in-chief of Stuff, working across the magazine and the Stuff.tv website.  Our Editor-in-Chief is a regular at tech shows such as CES in Las Vegas, IFA in Berlin and Mobile World Congress in Barcelona as well as at other launches and events. He has been a CES Innovation Awards judge. Dan is completely platform agnostic and very at home using and writing about Windows, macOS, Android and iOS/iPadOS plus lots and lots of gadgets including audio and smart home gear, laptops and smartphones. He's also been interviewed and quoted in a wide variety of places including The Sun, BBC World Service, BBC News Online, BBC Radio 5Live, BBC Radio 4, Sky News Radio and BBC Local Radio.

Areas of expertise

Computing, mobile, audio, smart home

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