Comments on: Google’s new privacy policy: Should you be concerned?

By: Lindsay Dier

Lindsay Dier — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 12:41:45 +0000

Very interesting article Matthew – I like how you’ve represented the different views of how some people see it as a threat, and other think it is great to have it!

I think that the type of information Google will have access to is a little bit disconcerting, but also think Google is essentially as ‘intrusive’ as you allow it to be (such as opting out from some of the personalisation and toggling settings/ or even just logging out of google!). We discuss how it may effect people on these levels here, http://ow.ly/8XXWF, which may be of interest to you.

I think it will have an interesting effect on future data liberation too – hot topic at the momemt after SOPA/PIPA and even changes on social networks such as Facebook Timeline!

By: Todd Bensel

Todd Bensel — Sun, 29 Jan 2012 02:59:37 +0000

I don’t trust google any more than I trust facebook. I’ve closed my gmail account and will use bing for my searches for the time being.
Todd Bensel

By: allenzhang

allenzhang — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 08:36:14 +0000

Thanks for your posting, because I saw the news earlier, but didn’t really care about it. I admit this privacy problem is very important for today’s social media, since Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Google pus all these tools more focus on people’s sharing culture, and this sharing theory even changed the way we listen music like Pandora and Spotify. But now, people start to worry about the privacy. I’m glad Google started to concern about it.
I have read an article before, it says there is a dirty little secret about social media, and most of social media sites these companies are monitoring are blogs and Web forums. They want to know what you are tweeting about, what are you blogging about, and where your comments are published.
Therefore, we are transparent, but we are enjoying social networking, it brings us convenience. Recently I been reading Zarefsky’s Rhetoric’s responsibilities for communication ethic class, and it says: we have responsibilities: to explain, to assess, and to improve the quality of discourse about topics that matter, and thereby to empower individuals and to enhance our public life (Zarefsky,Plenary Address,2008,p.13). David Zarefsky one of the responsibilities tells about “it binds individuals into communities and publics by establishing common bonds among people.”
So, yes we should be concerned about Google’s privacy new policy, I don’t care Google do that it’s for making profit or for protecting the users, either way will work for the our community, we just need to keep using the social media power to impact the public, impact the world!

By: CR

CR — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 03:35:57 +0000

It’s disturbing when I see ads of the exact products I pulled from my shopping cart following me around on email and YouTube.

And why is YouTube displaying ads for gay dating when I never visited anything related (some will say yeah right, I’m lying). That’s exactly the problem.

What if you your mom goes online and gets penis enlargement ads or video suggestions of midgets riding unicorns?

It’s just plain wrong. Just let people choose to get the chip implanted in their brain for 1 million Microsoft Points and be done with it. Obviously privacy is the last thing on peoples minds these days. Popular consensus among 12 year old kids doesn’t reflect the majority vote or intelligent user wold wide.

By: ishekhar

ishekhar — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 19:19:10 +0000

I am still thinking why the Last Modified date there is Mar 1, 2012 :)

(https://www.google.com/intl/en/policies/privacy/preview/ )

Nice way to show you are ahead of time, is it ?!

By: Eric

Eric — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 10:36:49 +0000

For the first time Google has itemized what it is collecting, and that is what makes it scary.
They know where you are (and have been) via GPS and other means
They know who you speak to (incoming and outgoing calls)
They know your friends
They know (many of) your purchases
They (may) know your credit card information

And they promise to keep it all safe and private unless they have the rights to use/share it or are asked nicely by some legal body (with varying requirements depending on country).

So it is not that they changed the policy that should scare you, but what they have already been doing.

By: Guest

Guest — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 08:53:47 +0000

Diaspora anyone?

By: cabbieBot

cabbieBot — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 23:56:59 +0000

Why is this “a problem” ?

By: Eddie

Eddie — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 23:50:52 +0000

> [A]t odds with our efforts to integrate our different
> products more closely so that we can create a
> beautifully simple, intuitive user experience.

Oh really? A “beautifully simple, intuitive user experience”? You don’t say Google. Sounds like a rip off of Apple’s m.o. … where were you (Page, Brin and Schmidt) years ago when you were hiring Ph.D’s who get bored easily and tend to be scatter brained. Now that the iPhone and iPad is white hot, yo want to become beautifully simple? That’s dubious.

By: cdr

cdr — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 21:08:20 +0000

How long before Sergey combines your personal (Google) data with the your DNA information from his wife’s company (www.23andme.com), and sells it to your insurance company?