Google dings missive to lawmakers: 'We're misunderstood' Google has responded to US politicos who demanded answers after the advertising giant announced it was "simplifying" its privacy policies across its huge online estate. In a letter to eight members of Congress, Google's director of public policy, Pablo Chavez, explained he was hoping to "correct some of the misconceptions" …
What we, as Google, would like from you is money. Unfortunately, unless it's called LexisNexis, nobody's willing to pay for access to a search engine whether top-notch or otherwise.
Please consider changing your behavior in that regard instead of complaining about the profitable endeavors we must undertake in order that we can afford to provide the best search engine on the Web, free of charge.
Sincerely yours, [...]
I think you misunderstood me, I understand that you must make a profit and you get that by monetarising (sp?) as much of my personal information as you can. The return I expect for that is the best search engine that you can possibly be. For some while now you have been failing to provide that.
So be a good chap and bugger off back to doing the search engine bit properly, as you used too.
Thanks
Your spelling is correct.
Your standard, stated here, is that we provide "the best search engine that [we] can possibly be". We already do so; you may rest assured that, as it becomes possible to provide an even better search engine, we'll do that, too.
Should you wish to continue this inquiry, please do so by indicating a requirement that's possible to satisfy. Thank you.
Sincerely yours, [...]
"What we would like from advertisers is money, as such, all your data, search queries, location information and anything else we can mine from what you do with any Google products online is fair game for us to sell to them.
"Your privacy? Oh, you give that up when you use our services."
We all pay for the Google searches in the end anyway. Their money comes from advertisiers whomistakenly think all of the users pay any attention to the paid results. This emans that we pay more for products and services and so on.
I used to pay google via adsense years ago but pulled out as the results are crap. Spending the same money in print advertising and then getting "word of mouth" promo via discussion sites etc worked far better. My revenue grew and my products became cheaper for the customers.
Indeed, that is true.
I use one browser (Chromium) for Google apps and Facebook, and *nothing else*. Even that is not ideal as YouTube links from Facebook know my log-in so I copy & past in to another browser for them.
Ideally you need 3 different browsers, one Google, one Facebook, and another for the rest - including searches, with all cookies, etc, deleted on exit.
Of course, there is also the scroogle plug-in for Firefox to help that.
I mean, is it just for a little peace of mind, or is there some tangible return for it? Seems like a lot of work to go to just to reassure yourself, I guess. You know, like installing Linux so Bill Gates (well I guess Steve Ballmer now, but whichever) won't get the regular morning email listing all the porn sites you've visited in the last 24 hours, or whatever.
"Chocolate Factory promises it's not locking your privates in a vice"
This can only mean one thing: they want to lock my privates in a vise.
I knew right away that Google was up to no good early last week, when I went to catch a subway downtown, and noticed that in nearly every other train, every car had almost every available square inch of advertising space plastered with light, airy, cheery ads talking about their wonderful new way of tracking users and why they need to, and why they need to stuff you full of cookies, etc.
What had to be the stupidest one of the bunch was one that explains why they need to know your search habits in order to serve you search results for "VW Beetle" when you want "VW Beetle" and not "beetle", the insect. Jeezus H. Christ on a stick. If all I want is results for "VW Beetle", all I have to do is click on "Advanced Search" and type "VW Beetle" into the "exact phrase" field. How goddamn' tough is _that_?
OK, so I use Google Search, Maps and Youtube here on this machine in work. I don't log in to any Google accounts. How do I manage the "profile" that Google has developed of this browser, based on the things I search for, the locations I check on Maps, and the videos I watch on Youtube, without logging into a Google account? Am I not entitled to the same level of privacy management on this machine as I am on my home machine, given that my work PC probably has a more detailed "profile" of me, except for my Gmail address, giving that I spend a hell of a lot more time in this browser than the one at home?
Do they repopulate it from other sources (IP address, browser fingerprint, flash cookies, etc)?
If it's that straightforward, why isn't it addressed in the privacy policy, which only addresses privacy management for users who log in, while explicitly acknowledging that you can be a user of the services without logging in?
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