by randomerr on 4/12/18, 10:01 AM with 64 comments
by notacoward on 4/12/18, 1:00 PM
BTW, if you want to have some fun, just try to imagine that the the government's interest in Facebook's data practices is not so much to regulate it as to copy it - either for the government itself or for election campaigns. IMO that makes a lot of their otherwise nonsensical or inconsistent behavior much more understandable. Creepy. They totally want to know more about us than Facebook and Google put together; they just don't know how.
by alecco on 4/12/18, 11:35 AM
And let’s never forget Eric Schmidt:
http://precursorblog.com/?q=content/googles-top-ten-anti-pri...
"If you have something that you don't want anyone to know, maybe you shouldn't be doing it in the first place;"
Google Chairman Eric Schmidt told CNBC's Maria Bartiromo 12-7-09.
The "Google policy is to get right up to the creepy line and not cross it;"
Said Google Chairman Eric Schmidt 10-1-10 per the Atlantic.
"Show us 14 photos of yourself and we can identify who you are;"
Google Chairman Eric Schmidt told the 2010 Techonomy conference.
"We know where you are. We know where you've been. We can more or less know what you're thinking about;"
Google Chairman Eric Schmidt 10-1-10 per the Atlantic.
"It's a future where you don't forget anything…"In this new future you're never lost...We will know your position down to the foot and down to the inch over time;"
Explained Google Chairman Eric Schmidt at TechCrunch, 9-28-10.
"No harm, no foul;" Concerning Google's unauthorized collection of WiFi signals from tens of millions of homes in 33 countries over three years, Google Chairman Eric Schmidt told the Times of London in May 2010.
by dschuetz on 4/12/18, 12:24 PM
The whole time I was using an Android phone with my google account logged in on the device, google recorded and retained basically everything. My location, without even me using the maps app. My old contacts which I deleted from my contacts lists were still in the records. Any IPv4 or IPv6 address my phone was assigned to. This was even more creepy than facebook's data trove. I deleted my data on facebook as far as I could and also the account (not just deactivated) and I deleted most of the data google had on me. The problem is that I only can assume that all the data is now gone, but how can I be sure?
Google might constantly assure that they handle everything with care, but the extent of their intrusion into my private life is really scary.
by kozikow on 4/12/18, 3:49 PM
- Malicious actors can't access most Google data has on you. Especially not by releasing psychological quiz app.
- Google is not tracking logged out users. New id is assigned to logged out users only for very short periods of time.
- Mostly compliant with GDPR for years prior to the regulation being released. The same can't be said for Facebook.
- Search results are much harder to manipulate by malicious actors than Facebook news feed ranking - based on the history of such manipulations.
- I don't work on either right now, but at the time I did Google had way much better internal access controls for employees.
Amassing personal data can be considered unethical on some levels, but amassing personal data can't be equated with being bad at privacy. Among "personal data hoarders" Google is by far the most coginzant about keeping that data private.
by open-source-ux on 4/12/18, 12:17 PM
When you create a Google account, you're asked to provide your name, your gender, your date of birth, your location and your mobile phone number. Some of your most personal and private details, all of which will now be tied to your online behaviour.
That ceaseless data capture starts right from school, where millions of students use a cloud-based OS called ChromeOS that records everything they do. It's quite horrible that this is happening - the kids don't even get a say, it's the adults who've decided this.
It doesn't matter if that information is only collated in aggregated form and detached from user accounts, we don't know how that information could be mined or analysed either now or in the future. (In fact, I suspect that even Google hasn't figure all the possible uses of the ginormous quantity of user behaviour it has captured and continues to capture).
And we've seen from Spotify and Netflix how even aggregated data can reveal very private and personal user behaviour.
Google and many of it's supporters conflate security with privacy. Just because Google hasn't ever suffered a breach of user data, people say that Google can be trusted. You can't have privacy without security, but security by itself does not equal privacy. You're still being tracked relentlessly by Google no matter how securely it's storing your online behaviour.
by matlin on 4/12/18, 12:21 PM
by wepple on 4/12/18, 2:11 PM
At the same time, they’re at the size and momentum that they should always be under scrutiny even if the answer keeps coming back “yeah they seem to be acting responsibly”. We don’t want to have an ambulance at the bottom of the cliff.
by hlecuanda on 4/12/18, 6:04 PM
Facebook never gave me anything of value in exchange for constantly monitoring and profilingmy behavior online. in fact, as it became ubiquitous,it added a new chore for me: maintaining ever changing privacy options on a defensive profile on their network.
So it takes peoples time, attention, and details on top of behavioral monitoring.
In contrast, Google provides me with a very competent productivity suite, a superb photo-managing software navigation, maps, aggregate traffic data,and a host of tools to actually build a business and educate myself and others.
Plus i get enterprise class security for my account and -arguably- the best web email service.
The day theres a data breach or in this case a breach of trust, im more likely to view google in a better light and give them the benefit of the doubt. Facebook gets my contempt and scorn.
>Inb4 "well then don't use Facebook": I don't. But that doesn't stop FB from building a shadow profile on me, so if I want some measure of control over my digital footprint, I have no choice or recourse but to open and maintain a defensive profile whose only purposes are a) claim my username / URL used on most services where I'm provided with such a srfvixe, b) "squat" my name and likeness so I can't be unknowingly impersonated on their network and c) keep up with their ever changing privacy controls
>Inb4 "sounds like cringe material from Google's social team": -I don't work for Google. I admit I'd love to, but I'm too old, perhaps. OTOH, I don't see how it's "cringe" since I succinctly describe the services the company does provide for me in exchange for my data and observing my behaviour; services I've used in making a living lately. Try making a living by developing on the FB platform, where every API Iteration makes you re-evaluate your business model.
by anoplus on 4/12/18, 4:02 PM
by troyvoy88 on 4/12/18, 2:23 PM
by yuhong on 4/13/18, 8:35 AM
by sixothree on 4/12/18, 2:22 PM
It's time we learn what they know about us. I want to know.
by mtgx on 4/12/18, 1:04 PM
by stewofkc on 4/12/18, 7:34 PM
https://hackernoon.com/why-facebook-is-the-perfect-represent...
by pepecantina on 4/12/18, 11:32 AM