Privacy warriors sue FTC over Google's policy tweak The Electronic Privacy Information Center is suing the US Federal Trade Commission for failing to take action against Google's plans to change its terms of service on 1 March. EPIC is concerned that the privacy policy revamp will be bad news for punters. As we've noted previously, a user of Gmail can shortly expect to be much …
Surely this surprises no-one coming from the same company that did... uhh... Google Earth? Pers'nally I think taking pictures of everywhere in the world and showing your house (with a broken fence, no curtains up and the grass needing a cut *facepalm*) is infinitely more intrusive.
I think they're ripe for a backlash, and I hope Faceballs goes the same way as Bebo, MySpace etc... not that I'm a spiteful git or anything
They aren't changing what data they collect. They are letting us know that this data will be shared across their product lines. It's all about advertizing. All the adverts are why we the consumer don't have to cough up any cash to use Google products. The more relevant the adds we see are to us, the better chance we'll click on one of them. Google already uses the one piece of information ALL websites get. Our IP address. It's why when you Google "Italian Restaurant" It spits out a list of establishments in your general area instead of places 300 miles away. Pull that search on my desktop, Google centers the results around the node that's assigning my IP. (Roughly 10 miles from my house) Pull the same search on my phone where I allow them to pick up on my location. The little place 1 mile from my house is top of the list. Now, say there's and advert on their list about a special at the restaurant 5 miles from where I'm standing, They can put that up instead of an add for jelly-fish stew up at the Red Lobster.
Pulling from profile info on Google+? Well when they know I like classic rock and country music, Pretty safe bet they don't need to put up an advert for the new Justine Bieber CD. Instead, they can put up the one about the new Rock collection Time-Life is trying to sell.
Duh, only when we are logged in. If we aren't logged in, they don't know for certain who we are.
(Could still guess based on the IP, but that would be a bit iffy)
Facebook: Annoyance extreme when it comes to their advertizing. They seem to think our street address is needed to provide location oriented adds. I live in Washington State, Yet most of the adds I see on Facebook are from businesses in New York. Why? Because I refuse to give those "We'll use whatever info you give us any way we see fit" fools that much info. FB has already proven they can't be trusted to secure or treat responsibly the personal information we share there.
Marc Rotenberg, President and Executive Director of EPIC served as counsel on the Senate Judiciary Committee to PIPA sponsor Patrick Leahy. The very same unconstitutional PIPA that Google just protested against and helped get shut down with your help and mine. So we should not be surprised he's making angry noises at Google.
Why even make it an issue of "I side with this guy or I side with that guy"?
I say this is an issue of "witches at every turn, call in a napalm strike!".
If Google are Evil, slay the dragon.
If Rotenberg is Evil, slay the dragon.
If Privacy is flower, protect it.
Slay dragons.
I don't care if the dragon is coloured blue or red.
I don't care if the dragon SAID that he wants to protect the flower.
The moment the dragon tries to harm the flower or ANY of the other animals, the moment his sheep skin is shed and you can tell that it's a dragon, SLAY IT!
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