3 replies to this topic

[Dave]

http://www.google.co...en/privacy.html


"We have 5 privacy principles that describe how we approach privacy and user information across all of our products:

1. Use information to provide our users with valuable products and services.
2. Develop products that reflect strong privacy standards and practices.
3. Make the collection of personal information transparent.
4. Give users meaningful choices to protect their privacy.
5. Be a responsible steward of the information we hold."

Principles 2 through 5 are straightforward enough. I agree those should all be priorities. But 1? That doesn't have anything to do with privacy. That's commerce. It's exploiting your information for commercial gain. The trade-off is you get to use their services for free. Okay, but that still doesn't have anything to do with privacy. (And why is it listed first?)

[Chad]

Wouldn't that just be informing you how they're using your info?

[Dave]

I thought privacy doesn't equal the lack of privacy.

Principle 1 is too vague. It could mean anything from "we mine anonymous user data to extrapolate behavior patterns to make our products better" to "we sell every bit of your soul so we can hock an ad for Arsenio Hall DVDs"

[Chad]

I dunno. There really isn't any privacy anymore I guess but look what kind of society we live in. Every minute of everyday someone is twittering their current activity, uploading a vlog to youtube all while pinpointing thier location on facebook and sending 300 pictures they just took of themselves with their cell phone to twitpic. People are obsessed with being famous and known, regardless of what it's for. I know some people who have more pictures on their facebook page than some towns have people.

Not saying your wrong, not even that I don't agree with you. I do. But I'm more and more certain everyday that we're as far from the mainstream as people can get. We should just give up, go work for the pharmaceutical or oil companies and become as rich as possible, get famous, make gay bashing appearances on Fox News once a month as analysts and draw straws on who gets fucked up the ass by Ann Coulter each month.