Thread: Google Announces Privacy Policy Changes Across Products. No Opt-Out.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/busine...cts-users-cant

I guess this was inevitable.

We're unable to locate the page you requested.

Argh!!

Hmm. Weird. This one should work:
Google tracks consumers’ online activities across products, and users can’t opt out - The Washington Post

Originally Posted by Oneironaut Zero

Hmm. Weird. This one should work:
Google tracks consumers’ online activities across products, and users can’t opt out - The Washington Post

Now that one won't load.

Ok it loaded now....

Well, yeah I think this is terrible.
Even if it's not used in any nefarious ways, it limits people to their own little section of the web in a way.
People will rarely see other's view points if all their search results are tailored to them.

Also, I hope this uses accounts instead of IP addresses. Because I use different account for Google, gmail and youtube.

Everything is the same but there's less to read. The horror!

They were already tracking you everywhere it was relevant to track. All they've done is made one document that covers everything.

One more reason why I'm anxiously awaiting Anon+

Anyone else going to start closing their Google et al accounts?

Nah. Just remember it's not a secure line of communication. But I like having something trackable, as well, just to give the coppers a little misdirection.

lol true.
But I think I'll delete my gmail account and start anew.

Well, I pretty much never use my gmail account, and I'm not signed in to Google+ currently, so I'm not sure how this affects me. I sign in on my YouTube account with my Gmail account though.

Just been searching through their transparency website, was eye opening the first time I saw it. But just found this.

Observations on User Data Requests


The number of requests we receive for user account information as part of criminal investigations has increased year after year. The increase isn’t surprising, since each year we offer more products and services, and we have a larger number of users.
The statistics here reflect the number of law enforcement agency requests for information we receive at Google and YouTube, the percentage of requests that we comply with (in whole or in part) and the number of users or accounts specified in the requests. We review each request to make sure that it complies with both the spirit and the letter of the law, and we may refuse to produce information or try to narrow the request in some cases.
We hope this tool will shine some light on the appropriate scope and authority of government requests to obtain user data around the globe.

IMO governments/police just shouldn't be able to request this information. It's so ridiculous. It's like if I'm a member at a bowling alley and they go there and ask for all the information the bowling alley has on me, even though there's no proof whatsoever that that has anything at all to do with the case.

I'd really like to be able to see more information on the information which is requested too. At least a description of it.

Google is an american company and therefore subject to the patriot act which covers a wide variety of criminal investigations outside of terrorism. Anyone who believes in the future of this nation and the world would be strictly non-compliant, though.

Originally Posted by Omnis Dei

Google is an american company and therefore subject to the patriot act which covers a wide variety of criminal investigations outside of terrorism. Anyone who believes in the future of this nation and the world would be strictly non-compliant, though.

Okay I may be opening a can of worms here but... Why should we be unhappy with the patriot act? The world is heading towards zero privacy anyway, and if you've got nothing to hide why should you be unhappy?

Originally Posted by Pensive Patrick

Okay I may be opening a can of worms here but... Why should we be unhappy with the patriot act? The world is heading towards zero privacy anyway, and if you've got nothing to hide why should you be unhappy?

Privacy is a good thing to have. While "and if you've got nothing to hide why should you be unhappy?" seems logical, it is very much against our nature to have everything we do recorded and analyzed. Google's and Facebook's privacy policies are not particularly nice, and I would love to see them reworked to be less intrusive, so to speak. This recent change by Google doesn't really change anything though.

Originally Posted by Pensive Patrick

Okay I may be opening a can of worms here but... Why should we be unhappy with the patriot act? The world is heading towards zero privacy anyway, and if you've got nothing to hide why should you be unhappy?

I despise this "nothing to hide" argument and greatly wish it would be dragged out the back and summarily executed, and proponents of it beaten with large pointy sticks. My business is not your concern, just because I have "nothing to hide". My personal life is likely not something anyone would be particularly interested in, but people still have a fundamental right and expectation of privacy regardless.

Further, EVERYONE has information they want to keep secret, or at least limit who has that knowledge. A classic but fairly trivial example is claiming you have plans to avoid an invitation from someone without hurting their feelings where obviously you do not want them to find out it was a lie.

If you have nothing to hide, then publicly post all your personal information and all kinds of aspects of your life for the world to see. Not going to? No, I didn't think so either.

Originally Posted by Photolysis

I despise this "nothing to hide" argument and greatly wish it would be dragged out the back and summarily executed, and proponents of it beaten with large pointy sticks. My business is not your concern, just because I have "nothing to hide". My personal life is likely not something anyone would be particularly interested in, but people still have a fundamental right and expectation of privacy regardless.

Further, EVERYONE has information they want to keep secret, or at least limit who has that knowledge. A classic but fairly trivial example is claiming you have plans to avoid an invitation from someone without hurting their feelings where obviously you do not want them to find out it was a lie.

If you have nothing to hide, then publicly post all your personal information and all kinds of aspects of your life for the world to see. Not going to? No, I didn't think so either.

Right I see what you're saying. But whilst I do have personal stuff I wouldn't like everyone to know, if everyone knowing that stuff would literally save lives or make society a better place I would gladly give up my petty privacy. It's the way society is heading anyway, despite all the "privacy is a right" people, and I'd like to think that in the distant future society will be full of people who a) gladly give up all privacy, and b) don't really care if everyone finds out their flaws or humiliating little secrets.

Who cares if you get a little embarrassed or hurt a few people's feelings, maybe lose a few friends. Be proud of who you are, and understand that total openness is one of the keys to a harmonious society.

Ok that sounded really preachy but please don't hate me.

Originally Posted by Pensive Patrick

if you've got nothing to hide why should you be unhappy?

FUCK this argument. I'm so sick of it.

What happens when the government or police decide something you have done is illegal? Like looking up porn which is too "risque", for example,
or looking up how to grow Cannabis, or whatever else.
I've probably committed every "conspiracy to" law in the books through my internet searches. When mostly I'm just curious.

Seriously, if you really believe what you said, I literally am scared for the future.

Originally Posted by Pensive Patrick

Who cares if you get a little embarrassed or hurt a few people's feelings, maybe lose a few friends. Be proud of who you are, and understand that total openness is one of the keys to a harmonious society.

In a society where people are already being denied employment, because job owners are judging them on completely unrelated, outside of work activities, that are evidenced on Facebook? Right. Good luck with that.

People need secrets for the same reason that I said - in another thread - that I wouldn't put my DV activity on my resume; because most people are not that open-minded to the quirks of others. And being progressive does not mean stripping people of their privacy rights, to try to force that kind of open-mindedness on the populace....mainly because it won't work, and people are likely to become resentful. In your view of a 'harmonious society', do you think we should allow the government to put video cameras in our homes? Think of all the domestic violence cases and burglaries it would help prevent!

I don't see the problem. Google has been doing this forever. This is a perfect example of journalists trying to blow things out of proportion.

You should attack Facebook long before you attack Google, when it comes to privacy related matters.

On paper Facebook has the same attitudes toward privacy as Google do.

From: Google Thinks I'm a Middle-Aged Man. What About You?

“See, this is all we’re concerned about in this whole tracking business. It’s not even detailed enough information to distinguish a middle-aged man from a girl technology reporter. To us, your profile is just a series of random digits, nothing more. And if you don’t like it, we are making it so easy to opt out that you have no excuse not to.”

Re: https://www.google.com/settings/u/0/ads/onweb/

Obviously China is doing very well without human rights, we should aspire to be more like China. We can only hope that this country will start handing out 12 year prison sentences for conspiring to start a union. It is our job to blindly assume that the government, and elite class which owns it, are looking out solely for the interests of the working class along with any sort of evolution that disrupts their power structure. It is insane to believe the government, and therefore the most powerful interests in the world, would exploit people for their own personal gain.

Google hasn't really changed anything. All they've done is combine your google services accounts into one shared google-account. This is logical, and doesn't have any impact on privacy, as far as I can tell (they were all kinda liked anyhow). I don't know why people are getting so worked up.

Originally Posted by khh

Google hasn't really changed anything. All they've done is combine your google services accounts into one shared google-account. This is logical, and doesn't have any impact on privacy, as far as I can tell (they were all kinda liked anyhow). I don't know why people are getting so worked up.

Even if privacy is the same, read what I said before. Coz that's exactly what we're heading for. It's not a guess or a prediction, it's a fact. That's what they're trying to make happen.

David Brin wrote a lot a few years back about information transparency and the extinction of privacy being inevitable, and I think he's probably right. His point was that it applies equally to public figures like politicians and corporations as it does to private citizens--more so, in fact, because more people are watching the President and Mansanto than are watching Joe Blow in Poughkeepsie. It's not totalitarian if it cuts both ways. Only if an imbalance of information exists--through, for instance, an imbalance of technology--is the disappearance of privacy a threat to liberty.