Wrote about this today - that Google’s Age of Innocence is over - TechCrunch  but it's amazing that many people don't realize the Age of Innocence has been over for a few years (ever since Google went public, and probably, before).  A post on TechCrunch spells out Google's new Ad Targeting, based on the Google Toolbar's collected information - Is the Google Toolbar a Trojan Horse for Ad Targetting? (Ballmer Plays The Privacy Card).

Since the Google Toolbar can track every site you visit, that data could theoretically be used to target ads served by Google (including DoubleClick display ads anywhere on the Web, or to further refine search ads). For instance, you could browse a Lumix digital camera on Amazon, and then see ads for digital cameras when you land on an unrelated travel site that happens to serve up DoubleClick ads. Or perhaps the next time you do a search on Google, it will push a Lumix ad out to you. Google could also use the data to create a Web measurement service that competes with comScore, Quantcast, Hitwise, or Compete.

Up to a point, some of the improvements that Web Surfing and behavioral targeting - are wanted - when an ad is shown to us we really want to see - when useful information is actually display at a point in the decision process when we are ready to act on it (say, information on travel, or buying a camera - when you really want to buy one).

I'm just wondering if it's too much - too much control in one place - too much information, and it's not regulated either (not that regulation solved anything - but , at least there's some limits - whereas Google doesn't really have any, except the limits it puts on itself).