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Google: Gmail users shouldn't expect email privacy
TaoPhoenix:
As I posted the original, I have to post the correction link also:
Yes, Gmail users have an expectation of privacy
So, though I know that the day that Google is proven to be evil will come... but that day is not today.
-wraith808 (August 14, 2013, 08:09 PM)
--- End quote ---
"Yes it is today, just not in this story. It's in the next story over".
This is spin control.
I like to use a Magic the Gathering analogy for current news (even though I never played all that well!)
News reports B.
News reports D.
News comments that "see, nothing is all that bad".
News reports C. Your intuition is ringing, but you can't quite put a finger on it. But also by this point B and D are old hat, and we've been trained that anything older than Last Month is old hat. (You can joke about Last Week, but the cycles are really just a bit longer than that.)
Then News reports A, the Oh Dear Gawd piece. A + B + C + D = the nasty gamelocking combo, and if it had ever come out all at once, no one would ever have allowed it.
So here, if I send an email to a Gmail user, *I wouldn't expect that to show me ads in a YouTube video*! But they have cross-link tech now, and they can do that soon.
Vurbal:
The most important thing to remember is that Consumer Watchdog is not what their name implies. They're basically a parasite that has attached itself to Google to promote themselves. A couple years ago they were making up lies about Google Analytics, telling everyone about how evil it supposedly is even though they were using it themselves. And more importantly what they were saying wasn't true.
I have plenty of problems with Google WRT AdSense. I'm not happy about their failure to use some loose change from their treasure hoard to defend users against obviously abusive and overreaching subpoenas. However they have also been a lot more open about what they do and don't do with user and search data than anyone else. Yes, they turned information over to the government. That's what happens when the secret police come knocking at your door. They were also the first company to volunteer information about government data requests, long before anybody knew about the NSA arm twisting programs.
AdSense does not have information about you from your Gmail account. A bot analyzes the contents of your emails and serves ads based on that. It does not send it to a database to be compiled into an aggregate set of data specific to you. Neither that bot nor any other part of their ad service has access to your account information. It certainly isn't available to AdSense partners and neither is information about the people who send you emails.
I'm not naive enough to think that's because they're just great people. But they're smart enough to recognize the danger of crossing certain lines. Sooner or later it would come out - probably sooner. It would provide exactly the ammunition clueless politicians around the world have been looking for so they can take Google down. They simply aren't in the suicide business.
Consumer Watchdog, however, is in the making money by attacking Google business. They admitted it to Mike Masnick in 2010. Like I said, there are plenty of good reasons to criticize Google, but if it comes down to Consumer Watchdog's word against Google's only one of them has been caught lying to sell books. You'll have to make your own call on that one.
40hz:
In the wake of the Snowden Revelations it's all moot.
Now it's time to stop useless finger pointing and trying to fix the blame. Especially since it should be fairly obvious by now that everybody was in on it - including the American public itself for their continuing refusal to face yet another "inconvenient truth."
Who really cares what's been done? Or by whom at this point. The big question - the real question - is what we're going to do about this nightmare we've allowed to become real.
rgdot:
In the wake of the Snowden Revelations it's all moot.
Now is the time to stop finger pointing and trying to fix blame. Especially since it should be fairly obvious by now that everybody was in on it - including the public itself for its continuing refusal to face the present reality.
Who really cares what's been done? Or by whom at this point. The big question - the real question - is what we're going to do about this nightmare we've allowed to become real.
-40hz (August 15, 2013, 08:01 AM)
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This.
Renegade:
In the wake of the Snowden Revelations it's all moot.
Now it's time to stop useless finger pointing and trying to fix the blame. Especially since it should be fairly obvious by now that everybody was in on it - including the American public itself for their continuing refusal to face yet another "inconvenient truth."
Who really cares what's been done? Or by whom at this point. The big question - the real question - is what we're going to do about this nightmare we've allowed to become real.
-40hz (August 15, 2013, 08:01 AM)
--- End quote ---
Move to Ancapistan? :P ;D
But cereally, what can most people do? Vote? Hahaha! Like that will change anything - it only makes things worse. Lobby? Yeah, that works real well - if you're from K Street and have deep pockets. Protest? Sure - the free speech zone is way over there on the other side of the cow field in the valley behind the briar bushes.
I suppose that people could start opting out of using anything used to spy on them, e.g. your supermarket loyalty card where they collect data on you about what you eat then sell it to your insurance company so they can raise your rates for eating too many Twinkies Chocolate Frosted Sugar Bombs. (I already told you that I was being cerealous!) But I really doubt most people are even remotely aware of the kind or depth of surveillance conducted against them. Most people don't have time to even become aware that there is a problem - they're too busy struggling to survive. (Gee... what a convenient coincidence?)
The people behind all this are smart. Extremely smart. They are polymaths that put us the smartest of us here to shame. They're 100 steps ahead, and we're wearing an albatross around our necks. They have a massive front line of soldiers to fall for them. At best, you can shoot a messenger by having 1 thrown in prison. Better have a metaphorical machine gun. Can enough messengers be shot?
Ok, got my poop-on-the-parade out...
I think there is hope, but there is that question...
What we're going to do about this nightmare we've allowed to become real.
-40hz (August 15, 2013, 08:01 AM)
--- End quote ---
* Help inform people - friends, relatives, family, whoever will listen.
* Opt out as much as possible.
* Use TOR.
* Use a VPN. (Pay in bitcoin for better anonymity.)
* Use fake email accounts.
* Use fake names & birth dates. (Keep track of these things in something like Keepass.)
* Cancel any subscriptions/services you don't need/use, particularly from large corporates.
* Stop purchasing anything you don't need to do what little you can to starve the beast:
* - keep your money out of the system as much as possible
* - buy local & spend local
* - replace big brand names from large companies with products from small companies
* - get rid of fiat in favour of assets (when possible).
I could go on, but I'd be digressing quite a bit, e.g. next on the list is stuff like planting a garden, visit the Basement where we discuss these kinds of things ;), etc.
I see a sick and diseased system, and the only cure is to get away from it as much as possible. Starve the beast. Withdraw and let it starve and die and alone. Then use the rotting carcass as mulch for fertilizer.
They don't care what your opinion is. In a recent speech the POTUS basically told people to f*(& off, shut up, and take it. They're going to do whatever they damn well please.
Then there's the bigger question... What else are these thugs up to, and what are we going to do about those things? This is just the tip of the iceberg. The first waft of rot and decay that most people are smelling. Hopefully the stench will wake some up.
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