IntroductionFull name, address, telephone number, email, credit card information and date of birth: what do all these things have in common? This is all personal information that is requested from you and other consumers during online transactions, including when creating accounts. These items are also collected by you and are used more and more in this constantly technologically advancing society with or without your permission and/or prior knowledge. The main culprits of this information retrieval system are social networking sites, including Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and even Google. This process has raised a grave concern in all of us which will be answered in this essay. How did the creation of Google impact the privacy of its consumers? Google has transformed from being the simple search engine it was when it was created to the extremely complex type of social networking site it has become today. These sweeping changes and improvements impacting the way Google is run have resulted in a decrease in the privacy that we, as consumers, have every right to. Before Google and these other social networking sites came along, consumers of some of the other online products had complete privacy of all their personal information. Now, with the creation of these sites, privacy has significantly decreased, leaving us with almost no privacy, meaning that networking sites that people have accounts with and any other companies that information has been shared with or have access to them information, it can find out almost anything about you. With our privacy now greatly reduced, networking sites can “steal” any information we provide… middle of paper… r. Np, nd Web. 26 October 2013. .Shankland, Stephen. “Google pays programmers to improve open source security.” CNET News. CBS Interactive, October 10, 2013. Web. October 26, 2013. .United States of America. Department of Homeland Security. Public affairs. Use of Google Analytics. By Kathleen McShea. Ed. Mary Ellen Callahan. Np: Department of Homeland Security, 2011. Dhs.gov. June 9, 2011. Web. January 14, 2013. .Werlin, Ernest 'Doc' "For better or worse, Google has clearly changed the world." HeraldTribune.com. The Herald Tribune, January 20, 2010. Web. January 14. 2013. .