Don’t be scared, it’s just Google
This is why some people should just go back in their cave.
So I read a couple articles (these are links):
The one from ZDNet
…And then the one from NetworkedWorld.
You see class, the rule is:
No information you present or submit on the internet is private. Ever.
You might be able to hide it, but putting anything on the internet and expecting it to be secure is like sticking your hand on a hot iron and saying you wont get burnt.
This amounts to lame media scare tactics from ZDNet & Microsoft (who later used the linked article to make Office 365 look a little better on the 20th.) Bottom line. Here’s what actually happened.
It’s like putting a cookie in a 6-year-old’s mouth and telling him not to eat it.
A person from the media tries to use a false alias on Google and gets banned from Google+ for it. She complains that Google’s methods of finding her out were shady.
It’s like getting pulled over and offering a donut to get out of a ticket.
This would all be so much easier if people actually read their ULA’s. Free email entitles the provider access to said data as long as no personal information is ever distributed in a manner that would identify that person. In the same manner all the big companies like checking on employee email, Google, while not in the habit of sifting through your dirty laundry, uses the content of the emails to gauge advertizements, they’ve been doing this for YEARS. It’s part of your ULA, which , since the Buzz disaster, and gone edgy and it cuts on both sides, you have to opt out, AND they are starting to keep an eye on user registration information, that you actually gave them the right to do by applying for an account with Google.
It’s like painting a big “L” on your forehead just before a job interview and expecting to get the job.
The bottom line is this. If you don’t want Big Everything to use your personal information in identifying you on the net, stop putting yourself out there. Being involved with the media on the net isn’t exactly the best way to stay anonymous, or guard your identity. Using Google as anyone but yourself is actually a violation of their ULA so in all that complaining, what it comes down to is a large online temper tantrum that Microsoft was able to use in jabbing Google in their war for online Apps dominance.
It’s like telling the neighborhood gossip you’re boinking the next-door neighbor and expecting that the little secret will never get out.
In summation:
Don’t stick your damn hand on a hot iron.
Don’t give 6-year-olds a cookie unless you expect them to eat it.
Don’t offer the police a donut when you get pulled over.
Don’t paint an “L” on your forehead just before a job interview.
Stop boinking the next door neighbor, or at least stop telling people about it.
…and most importantly, never provide ANYONE with information about yourself online and expect it to stay hidden.
Thanks for reading!
-Tony
My ex-wife was a civil-services brat–that is, both her parents worked fairly high up in the G-sector and thus she learned a LOT about how it operates simply through a good 18 years of constantly being around it, both in the States and abroad.
After 9/11, when people really started getting antsy about privacy concerns due to the Patriot Act, she told me something that I’ve always kept in mind when reading articles like the one you linked: “People are all freaked out about the government spying on them and shit, but what they don’t really seem to get is that the government has been able to find out anything it wants to, about anyone, for YEARS now. They can falsify documents if they want to. Create evidence if they want to. But ya wanna know the truth? 99% of the time, they genuinely just don’t care. And the 1% of the time that they do, sometimes it’s too much of a pain in the ass for them to really do anything about it anyway unless it’s truly vital. Even assassins have to fill out paperwork.”
People who somehow worry that this “nose in our business” problem with Google or whomever is opening the door to persecution issues for unpopular or criminal views..need to get over themselves. If the Government really gave THAT much of a shit about repressing the population, every anti-government site of any sort would be offline within a week, I’d wager.
Bottom line is, people in the States often suffer an overinflated sense of importance, not to mention a fundamental inability to understand that privacy and free speech are PRIVILEGES of democracy. We might talk a lot about them being “divine rights,” but tell that to people in Japan. The Japanese are so accustomed to not having privacy they’ve developed selective deafness as a physiological trait. That’s pretty impressive when you think about it.
So. fucking. WHAT, if Google’s software delivers ad content based on scanning contents of e-mails? A lot of places do this very same thing. But the thing is, the software is only looking for key-words. It doesn’t care jack-shit about the context in which those words are being used. It clearly doesn’t bother to actually analyse the contents of the entire e-mail or post as a whole, because if it did then I wouldn’t keep seeings ads for Christian dating services in my sidebar simply because I wrote to someone, “Jesus Christ, I’m so in the mood to get laid tonight.” Or even more amusing, Scientology ads when I simply use the word “cruise” in some fashion.
Another thing? If you ask me, mate, this whole brouhaha over Google using information to create targetted ads probably has less to do with actual concerns over privacy, and more to do with being annoyed with having to deal with advertisements in the first place. It just sounds more noble to couch it as a free-speech concern.
And yeah, I know, that’s not ALWAYS the case, of course, but like you said yourself, if people are worried about their bosses finding out they’ve been bitching about them, they shouldn’t blather such complaints to the entire damn world. And these days, the Internet practically IS the whole damn world, no matter what website you’re on.
Very well said in common language that even a monkey should be able to understand.
Leanne Hoagland-Smith
Author of Be the Red Jacket in a Sea of Gray Suits
A fact well stated. Eventually someone will find something that you said or wrote but did not want them to know. That’s why everyone says do not say anything negative about your work or boss on social networking sites because they will probably hear about it.
Neha.
Thank you all for commenting!
@James – You really should think about getting a blog amigo 😉 I miss those rants. I think they kind of rubbed off on me back in the day *grin*
@Leanne – This one is far better 😉 https://tonytown.com/2010/01/the-six-year-old-argument/
@Neha – I used to work for companies that checked the online activity of their employees. The looming shadow of the proverbial “big brother” is all around now. One of the reasons I started my own firm, not going to worry about speaking my mind 😉
@James: you should take Tony’s advice and start a blog
@Tony: I would really be interested what your thoughts on this article is; I have just changed my settings a minute ago. Am interested in your opinion. How can we protect ourselves, even if larger companies find “sneaky” ways to actually USE our data. The fact that my linkedin profile is public, ok. But used to possible other websites as well?
A good reminder for all of us but especially for our younger generation which doesn’t seem to hold much back these days!
Hi Lynn,
There is no such thing as free on the internet. By creating an account on LinkedIn, they are authorized to use your public information for promotion and advertizing.
Does it bother me? Not really. People need to let go of the sense entitlement that everything they do & say on the internet comes some sort of guarantee or entitlement to security/privacy by default. If you’re paying for a service in most cases you can certainly expect a much clearer (and secure) experience, but all these internet companies are businesses, and they are not going to ignore opportunities to advertise and make money from you. The “free” services are anything but. What you trade them is your internet activity/usage/opinion.
This isn’t about any loss of privacy rights, by definition everything the internet is publicly accessed. People generally think this is just a scare tactic when in fact it’s always been true.
Hi Sandra!
Thanks for commenting! You’re absolutely right, unfortunately I am afraid this isn’t anything new. I was incredibly vocal on the bbs’s (Bulletin Board Systems) before the internet was a useful replacement for them, and I’ve seen 3 generations of kids do the exact same thing. On the average, kids simply haven’t experienced many situations where what they’ve said online has come back to kick them real hard in the arse. Sooner or later though, they’ll realize that more and more what they say online never really goes away and could be called to question many years down the road.
-T