But as the TV viewing population gears up to either love, loathe or secretly flirt with BB8, perhaps it's time we paid the same obsessive attention to its cyberspace cousin, the Big Brother on our desktops?

If you think the TV show has the ante on coercing participants to submit to its aims, think again.

Where Big Brother talks the talk in terms of monitoring and profiling, Big Google walks the walk.

New acquisitions such as DoubleClick and a human genetics firm combined with the use of psychological profiling will ensure we get tailored advertising, but it also makes its latest venture, Google Recommends, a far more creepy proposition than anything the TV series has thrown at its unwitting contestants.

In a recent mission statement Google revealed details of how it intends to organise and control the world's information. According to chief executive, Eric Schmidt: "The goal is to enable Google users to be able to ask questions such as 'What shall I do tomorrow?' and 'What job shall I take?'."

To do this, Google is now investigating psychological methods. According to Search Engine Watch, "Google has submitted a patent for psychological profiling of users. The patent outlines the ability to profile game users by their chat conversations and other text-based interaction with the games." Essentially the company will be tracking and profiling users and selling information about their on-line behaviour to advertisers. Details such as whether a person is more likely to be aggressive, hostile or dishonest could be obtained and stored for future use.

Google is not alone in storing on-line information . . .

they're just ahead of the competition. The problem however, is that unlike the TV which you can turn off, in cyberspace, you're 'locked in', and it's nigh-on impossible to retain anonymity. Every website you visit logs personal information, it's all part of the trade-off we make every day between security or privacy and convenience.

Despite the criticisms, Big Brother is a highly lucrative industry for its creators and Google hopes its endeavours will prove likewise. But while the future Big Google may make life easier, who gets the best deal in the trade-off between 'convenience' and privacy? Big Google and its imitators aren't necessarily sinister, but if it all gets out of hand, unlike the Big Brother show, we'll hardly get an apology or an easy way out.