Google

[charlietuna]

Should we fear Google looking over our shoulders now?

 

[BigBenni]

Well I think we all are already glassy and if special people want to find out something they already have the necessary technology e.g. spying etc.

I think to have fear there is no real need for because of my mentioned phrase but in my opinion Google goes a step too far and already broke in many privacies.

Correct me if I am wrong but I think Google-Earth is the best example for that.

 

[bigsal]

It is too early to tell.

But beyond all consideration, Google has plenty of good free products, and for this we must be grateful.

 

[Tjerk12]

I think google is fantastic. All the libraries of the world in your own computer. And why should I be afraid of something. Small fish can always swim through the meshes of the net.

 

[etilit]

yes

 

[SimplyJakeAndAlex]

Well I think we all are already glassy and if special people want to find out something they already have the necessary technology e.g. spying etc.

I think to have fear there is no real need for because of my mentioned phrase but in my opinion Google goes a step too far and already broke in many privacies.

Correct me if I am wrong but I think Google-Earth is the best example for that.

Agree partially with you since although Google has all those gadgets and services, I still believe that Facebook gets the palm when it pertains to privacy breach, however it is the responsibility of the users to educate themselves about privacy and to decide what is correct for them to post or not. Google and Facebook and all other social networks bring those services to you, but it is your responsibility to read their policies, to read their term of use and ask question if something sounds fishy and last but not least, not use the service if that is not responding to your privacy needs.

 

[topdog]

There's no reason to panic. You don't have to have big G looking over your shoulder if you don't want to. If that's your goal, then here's some tips:

• Don't buy an Android phone. When you use Android you are agreeing to stay connected to Google services as long as the phone is turned on.
• If you have an Android phone, turn off location settings so at least they don't know where you are every minute of the day.
• Don't stay logged in to your Google account all day on your computer. Log in, check your mail, photos, whatever - and then log out. Google only knows what you are searching for if you are logged in to your account when you do it.

And finally, the easiest solution:

Turn off the setting that allows Google to record your search history. To get to this menu, go to the Google history setting or head to the "Account Settings" menu from the top navigation bar you see when signed in to your Google account. Scroll down to the "Services" section. From here, you can pause, edit or remove all Web History. On some accounts, you can also go to the "Products" section of your account settings and click the "Edit" link next to "Your Products."

 

[jeansGuyOZ]

For searching I use Bing rather than Google, as a matter of policy. I was never a great fan of Microsoft, but I have less of a problem with them than I do with google, who seem to take the cavalier attitude that privacy is an inconvenience to them and their advertisers.

Well guess what. Maintaining some of my privacy is important to me. No doubt Google already have lots of information about me that I would rather they did not have, but I'll be buggered if I am going to do anything to help them gather it.

On any Youtube page there is an announcement at the top about their privacy policy, saying "This stuff matters." Yes it does. Given that it matters, it would be nice if clicking on the link took me to a page that told me how I go about reducing or even eliminating this unwanted flow of information from me to them. Instead, all there is is a big propaganda spiel about how wonderful it will be when all my data is under one roof. Their roof. They will be able to tailor ads specifically to my net search patterns. Whoopee. Why am I supposed to celebrate that?

 

[garth33]

There's no reason to panic. You don't have to have big G looking over your shoulder if you don't want to. If that's your goal, then here's some tips:

• Don't buy an Android phone. When you use Android you are agreeing to stay connected to Google services as long as the phone is turned on.
• If you have an Android phone, turn off location settings so at least they don't know where you are every minute of the day.
• Don't stay logged in to your Google account all day on your computer. Log in, check your mail, photos, whatever - and then log out. Google only knows what you are searching for if you are logged in to your account when you do it.

And finally, the easiest solution:

Turn off the setting that allows Google to record your search history. To get to this menu, go to the Google history setting or head to the "Account Settings" menu from the top navigation bar you see when signed in to your Google account. Scroll down to the "Services" section. From here, you can pause, edit or remove all Web History. On some accounts, you can also go to the "Products" section of your account settings and click the "Edit" link next to "Your Products."

Thanks td - G**gle has been compiling TONS of INFo for a long time...no wonder they would finally find a way to use it to RELENTLESSLY sell us shit bastards

 

[Urban]

I trust Google because they told me I should.

 

[jeansGuyOZ]

I should add that I have never had a Google "account" as such.

The university where I was a postgraduate, in their wisdom, replaced their official student email service - which admittedly was flaky - with Gmail. Every student had to have a Gmail account. Send an email to your friend in the next lab, and it goes via the Google server, located somewhere in the US, and a copy is likely to stay there until Google takes it upon themselves to delete it, which may be never.

It did not occur to the university administration that we have a number of students from countries where political freedom is compromised or non-existent, and where the government takes a dim view of anything that could be construed as criticism. An Australian ISP can be made to divulge the contents of private emails, but only by order of a court, and such order being according to Australian law. That would not be the case with Gmail. The fact that we are currently on friendly terms with the United States is beside the point. Who is to say that will always be the case? Or that the US will not do some kind of data-swapping deal with other countries? At one of the other universities in this city, foreign students were so alarmed by this proposal to adopt Gmail that the other Uni decided to go with Microsoft Mail instead.

"But Microsoft is American", you say? Yes, but the Australian division is a separate company, Microsoft Australia, incorporated under Australian law, and their servers are here, that's the difference.

We in "civilised" countries tend to talk about privacy in terms of people finding out little embarrassing secrets about us. We forget that for citizens of some countries, privacy is literally a matter of life and death.

 

[Tjerk12]

We in "civilised" countries tend to talk about privacy in terms of people finding out little embarrassing secrets about us. We forget that for citizens of some countries, privacy is literally a matter of life and death.

JeansGuy it would be better if privacy was more respected, but I am afraid that your thoughts about dangerous regimes are too positive. In the sixties and seventies I had a lot of friends who escaped the fascist regimes in Chile and Uruguay. Such governments do not worry about proof. They arrest you as a suspect and then torture until you confess. In principle not to give names of friends, but to legalize their action. I have seen a torture tutorial that the Pinochet regime used as a standard work. It was composed by the secret service of one of the leading Western World powers.

 

[bigsal]

JeansGuy it would be better if privacy was more respected, but I am afraid that your thoughts about dangerous regimes are too positive. In the sixties and seventies I had a lot of friends who escaped the fascist regimes in Chile and Uruguay. Such governments do not worry about proof. They arrest you as a suspect and then torture until you confess. In principle not to give names of friends, but to legalize their action. I have seen a torture tutorial that the Pinochet regime used as a standard work. It was composed by the secret service of one of the leading Western World powers.

And with the support and complicity of the then U.S. government

 

[topdog]

... Send an email to your friend in the next lab, and it goes via the Google server, located somewhere in the US, and a copy is likely to stay there until Google takes it upon themselves to delete it, which may be never.
... An Australian ISP can be made to divulge the contents of private emails, but only by order of a court, and such order being according to Australian law. ...

I certainly respect your reluctance to trust your private emails to Google. But on a technical point - your e-mail to the person in the next lab would NOT travel from AU to the US and back again(assuming that's where Google's servers were located). In that scenario your e-mail was never in Australia. It only existed on Google's servers going from one Gmail box to another - probably all inside a single server.

When you look at your Gmail (or Hotmail, or Yahoo Mail), the mail isn't coming to you - you are traveling to where the mailbox is to see your mail.

And if you use a secure connection (https instead of plain old http) it is encrypted so your local ISP can't see any of the contents of the data going back and forth.

Your point about whether or not Google deletes your messages is well taken, though. For a long time there was no delete option in Gmail. They had so much storage space - they didn't see the point.

 

[gb2000ie]

If you're not paying for a product, then you ARE the product - period!

You can use Google services, or you can not. You have the choice.

You can pay someone to provide you with an email service, or you can get it for free from Google, but you have to understand that Google is not a charity, so they expect a different kind of payment, your data!

The key point is that Google are open and honest about this. Their privacy policy is written in plain English, and much shorter than the paperwork for even a small overdraft from your bank. Add to that the Google Dashboard which allows you to see and control the data Google has on you.

All in all, the world would be a much better place if more companies were as transparent as Google about what they do with your data! *cough* Facebook *cough*

B.

 

[crazyfalcon]

I don't care but people around me start to panic.

 

[jeansGuyOZ]

You can use Google services, or you can not. You have the choice.

You can pay someone to provide you with an email service, or you can get it for free from Google, but you have to understand that Google is not a charity, so they expect a different kind of payment, your data!

I was trying to make the point that the students were not being given the choice. The university was making the decision for them - a decision that I consider to be a bad one.

I don't want to labour the point, and in general you are right about customers having the choice, but I did feel I needed to emphasise this - that my criticism was directed at the university, as much as at Google.

 

[gb2000ie]

I was trying to make the point that the students were not being given the choice. The university was making the decision for them - a decision that I consider to be a bad one.

I don't want to labour the point, and in general you are right about customers having the choice, but I did feel I needed to emphasise this - that my criticism was directed at the university, as much as at Google.

I see your point, especially because I imagine students are forced to use their official email.

However, students should not be using their college email for personal stuff, so the loss of privacy should be minimal in that case.

B.

 

[subbrew]

As long as they continue to be up front about their policies then no fear on my part with using google.