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Google Ends Privacy

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Deozaan:
Also one should realise too that you can view the profile Google has built up on you and request that they no longer use targeted ads.-Eóin (January 25, 2012, 04:57 PM)
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Silly question, but how do you view it ?
-4wd (January 26, 2012, 01:17 AM)
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https://www.google.com/dashboard/

JavaJones:
I'm with Josh and Deo: I willingly signed up for these services and can choose to cancel them at any time should I be dissatisfied with the utility/privacy balance. This change is expected and reasonable *given how Google has operated for years, which we all knew about*. It's not as if Google suddenly became this big information aggregator and it's all weird, new, and scary. They may be consolidating *more* info in a single place and associating some with others, but it was all there before. Frankly if it helps make the services better, I'm in favor.

And the beautiful part is this: if it *doesn't* help make the services better, Google will eventually lose market share and we'll all jump on some new bandwagon that does it bigger and better. That's the simple truth that everyone upset at Google seems to ignore. Nobody forces anyone to use Google's services. Is it frustrating to some that Google forces you to have a G+ account to use an otherwise unrelated but still useful service like Youtube? Yup. But if you don't like it, use Vimeo. Perfectly valid alternative. Does it bother some people that Google's search results now incorporate social influences by default? Yes, in fact I'm one of them. But A: I can turn that off (thankfully) and B: if I don't like it, I can use one of the many fine alternatives already mentioned in this thread.

And let's not forget that other organizations have been doing similar things for ages. Want to download the Windows 7 beta? Oh, I'm sorry, you need a Windows Live ID. Want to use Skydrive? Same. How about Hotmail? Your hotmail *is* a Live ID. How about Yahoo? Oh, yep, same. Yahoo Mail, Flickr, etc. etc. all use a Yahoo ID to login. And let's not be naive and think that *they're* not all aggregating their data behind the scenes. If MS is *not* using data from their other services to influence search it's either because A: they haven't figured out how to do it yet (given their many blunders in the Internet space this would not surprise me) or B: they don't think it's the solution to the problems they and Google both have as search engines for the "wild and wooly west" of the Internet (e.g. spam, scams, etc.). It's certainly not because they're worried about your privacy.

In the end it seems like this sums up people's complaint pretty well: "Google provides a lot of awesome services for free and I want to use them, but they have control over the systems and their functioning and don't always change them in ways I like, and worse yet they insist on collecting data on me so they can make money from my use of their services." So basically people want something for nothing.

- Oshyan

Josh:
I think everyone should watch this video and then question whether Google knowing your "favorite music" is the biggest of their worries. Watched this in my CISSP class.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-2160824376898701015

Renegade:
I think everyone should watch this video and then question whether Google knowing your "favorite music" is the biggest of their worries. Watched this in my CISSP class.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-2160824376898701015
-Josh (January 26, 2012, 03:37 AM)
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That was cool! The Trojan horse stuff was hilarious. :D

4wd:
https://www.google.com/dashboard/
-Deozaan (January 26, 2012, 01:26 AM)
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Thanks Deo!

Yep, as I guessed, pretty bland :)

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