Comments on: Google: Comprehensive consumer surveillance and entrenched hostility to privacy http://huddledmasses.org/google-comprehensive-consumer-surveillance-and-entrenched-hostility-to-privacy/ You can do more than breathe for free... Fri, 27 Apr 2012 12:40:09 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.2 By: Joel 'Jaykul' Bennett http://huddledmasses.org/google-comprehensive-consumer-surveillance-and-entrenched-hostility-to-privacy/comment-page-1/#comment-80766 Joel 'Jaykul' Bennett Wed, 13 Jun 2007 04:03:21 +0000 http://HuddledMasses.org/jaykul/google-comprehensive-consumer-surveillance-and-entrenched-hostility-to-privacy/#comment-80766 Well, the only good news about the "Gov't vs. Google" question is that (as Eric Schmidt would say) with Google, you can choose not to use them. And honestly, when the company's being run by a guy that "thinks that":http://news.com.com/Google+CEO+defends+privacy+policies/2100-1032_3-5713639.html "the value of more information so overwhelms its [potential for] misuse that we've not had material problems," ( *ahem* "until now":http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/industry_sectors/technology/article1920653.ece ) I'm not so sure that's not one of his best ideas. :-( The problem is, where do you turn? Yahoo!'s rating in that study is only one level less bad, and Microsoft's is only one level better than that (and historically, they haven't even been _that_ good). Maybe the only thing to do is to try and spread that information around: use GMail if you like it, and Flickr if you like that, but do your searches on Ask.com or Microsoft's Live search ... or put your bookmarks on del.icio.us, but don't also use Yahoo! for search ... or search on Google (without logging in), but use Hotmail for email and then you can use Flickr or del.icio.us. Oh, and by the way, Skype has a reasonable "security page":http://www.skype.com/security/ where they even post the security _problems_ they've had. And they _do_ encrypt all skype-to-skype calls (although I'm not clear on whether, "unlike Gizmo":http://support.gizmoproject.com/index.php?_a=knowledgebase&_j=questiondetails&_i=65 they encrypt the internet portion of calls to/from "real" phones). Well, the only good news about the “Gov’t vs. Google” question is that (as Eric Schmidt would say) with Google, you can choose not to use them. And honestly, when the company’s being run by a guy that thinks that “the value of more information so overwhelms its [potential for] misuse that we’ve not had material problems,” ( ahem until now ) I’m not so sure that’s not one of his best ideas. :-( The problem is, where do you turn? Yahoo!‘s rating in that study is only one level less bad, and Microsoft’s is only one level better than that (and historically, they haven’t even been that good).

Maybe the only thing to do is to try and spread that information around: use GMail if you like it, and Flickr if you like that, but do your searches on Ask.com or Microsoft’s Live search … or put your bookmarks on del.icio.us, but don’t also use Yahoo! for search … or search on Google (without logging in), but use Hotmail for email and then you can use Flickr or del.icio.us.

Oh, and by the way, Skype has a reasonable security page where they even post the security problems they’ve had. And they do encrypt all skype-to-skype calls (although I’m not clear on whether, unlike Gizmo they encrypt the internet portion of calls to/from “real” phones).

]]> By: Richard in Kunming http://huddledmasses.org/google-comprehensive-consumer-surveillance-and-entrenched-hostility-to-privacy/comment-page-1/#comment-80583 Richard in Kunming Tue, 12 Jun 2007 08:20:31 +0000 http://HuddledMasses.org/jaykul/google-comprehensive-consumer-surveillance-and-entrenched-hostility-to-privacy/#comment-80583 Just read that news myself. Sigh. But just as you said - no big surprises here. I can't help but wonder who has the most information on me - google, or my home government. And my gut tells me that it's google. Although my gut also quite often tells me that it is hungry - even when its not! Uh, point being that my gut is occasionally wrong. What about this street view thing? I don't quite have it put into words yet, but I definitely have a negative feeling about it. Yeah, it's pretty cool to be able to see things that way...but...just have a bad feeling about it. And while we're at it, I wish Skype would step it up a bit. They are quite vague about their security measures.. They are my main source of communication with the states from here in China, but I've been told by various friends that they are quite buddy-buddy with the government here. So what's to be done? Just read that news myself. Sigh. But just as you said – no big surprises here. I can’t help but wonder who has the most information on me – google, or my home government. And my gut tells me that it’s google. Although my gut also quite often tells me that it is hungry – even when its not! Uh, point being that my gut is occasionally wrong.

What about this street view thing? I don’t quite have it put into words yet, but I definitely have a negative feeling about it. Yeah, it’s pretty cool to be able to see things that way…but…just have a bad feeling about it.

And while we’re at it, I wish Skype would step it up a bit. They are quite vague about their security measures.. They are my main source of communication with the states from here in China, but I’ve been told by various friends that they are quite buddy-buddy with the government here.

So what’s to be done?

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