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Thread: Google changes...illegal???

  1. #1
    Community Leader Jaxilon's Avatar
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    Default Google changes...illegal???

    I will start out admitting I have not bothered to read the changes Google is putting into effect. I know I should but it's so boring.

    What I THINK they are doing is sharing all the data on your Google log in with the rest of their products so they can advertise to you appropriately no matter where you are logged in.

    Today the BBC had this article: Google privacy changes "in Breach of EU law".

    That got me to thinking maybe I don't want to use Google anymore and would it make any difference if I was to use Bing or one of the other search engines from here on out?

    Personally, I believe that if you want to use the Internet you have to accept that somebody somewhere can put all the pieces together of everything you do so just beware. To think otherwise is naive.

    Now that doesn't mean I want to share everything about myself with the whole world however or that I even approve of my actions being tracked. On the surface all this sounds like an opportunity for a rival company to seize some market share or some hackers to create their own "safe haven" from all the prying eyes. That creates another scary environment though because then you would have all the real criminally intent over there.

    After checking out Tilt's post about the copyright and patent issues, it seems that the whole Internet scene is amplifying some serious problems with the way greed and dishonesty effect the world we live in.

    At first I didn't imagine that Google was doing anything that big of a deal but now I'm not so sure.
    “When it’s over and you look in the mirror, did you do the best that you were capable of? If so, the score does not matter. But if you find that you did your best you were capable of, you will find it to your liking.” -John Wooden

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    Publisher Facebook Connected bartmoss's Avatar
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    Correct, the objection is over the linking of data Google collects in various services. Data protection laws probably vary a lot from country to country, with a certain "minimum" required by EU law. I don't believe Google collects any more data today than it did a few days ago. Of course, such linked data is many times more valuable than having it all spread out without being able to combine it. It's also much, much easier to abuse the data this way.

    I doubt that Yahoo, Microsoft, or other services (Facebook comes to mind) are much better at this than Google, it's just that Google is extremely visible.

  3. #3
    Community Leader Facebook Connected tilt's Avatar
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    I agree with bartmoss here - don't think google is any worse than its competitors in this regard. The general problem (for all) is to really understand what data is collected about you. To site a recent case of big-brotherism - Microsoft closed a cloud-storage account cause there were "naugthy" pictures in it ... the pictures weren't public, so MS looked in someones account to determine this. (and the pictures were drawings of pixies (santa style) very cartoonish. In the wake of that I read articles about people getting banned for topless beach pictures... models for nudes... and even parents for their kids in a bathtub. All these were private albums (except the models linked to hers to potential clients). Of course MS don't look at all pics, but this shows that they have some software running that flags potential inapropriate content.

    Now if someone went through your boxes in a storage unit to check if you had anything illegal there...
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    Community Leader Jaxilon's Avatar
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    Pretty much what I figured.
    It's interesting that everyone is becoming like a public figure. I mean that in the way that a person running for President has his college days dug up and that he smoked dope at a party is publicized. We are one step away from this happening to everyone.

    While I don't have anything that I am worried about coming out of my past I imagine there are always some things you don't want your mother to know about, ya know?

    I think as folks become more aware of what can happen it will change behavior. For example, who does crank telephone calls anymore? With all the caller ID there is no way to get away with it.
    “When it’s over and you look in the mirror, did you do the best that you were capable of? If so, the score does not matter. But if you find that you did your best you were capable of, you will find it to your liking.” -John Wooden

    * Rivengard * My Finished Maps * My Challenge Maps * My deviantArt

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