Comments on: Google Knows Where I Am and Everything Else I Do

By: henitsirk

henitsirk — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

I use Google Search and Books all the time…for work. The results have nothing whatsoever to do with my personal interests — they reflect research I am doing while editing manuscripts. So the data they may be compiling isn’t necessarily connected to my personal sense of privacy.

Now my Gmail account, that’s another story.

By: Leo Clark

Leo Clark — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

:) I agree!
I use almost all of Google’s services, and I am convinced that they will rule the world for a while.
It is a bit creepy, but I am used to the idea they know everything about me.
By the way, I use Picasa for my pictures.

Bis bald,

Leo

By: ArpitNext

ArpitNext — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

And, if you use Google Reader ….. they know what you READ!!!

By: Duncan Riley

Duncan Riley — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Which is why I’ve given up caring. You can’t fight the Google monster.

By: centernetworks

centernetworks — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

that’s true!

By: Louis Gray

Louis Gray — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

This is what I was going to add as well, especially since that’s how I saw this post. They know what you read, what you think is most important, and when you read it.

By: Shamus

Shamus — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

No, Duncan Riley, you just can’t fight and ride it at the same time. You’ve made your choice, that’s all your giving up means. I, too, am riding the monster for now because they have the best mail interface I’ve found. Trouble is that data stored once is data stored forever, and we each have only one life, as far as we know.

Anybody who knows the first thing about freedom and privacy and what our ancestors (wherever you are in the world) went through to keep the shreds we have left alive, knows they would bleed all over again to prevent this much data from being stored in a single house. Of course, nobody who hasn’t done extracurricular research into the wars will never suspect the simple attitude which led to our most violent and life-changing revolutions: “Leave us well enough alone, and be sure to remain both smaller and less powerful than us, you public servants; political, religious and corporate.”

By: Internet Strategist

Internet Strategist — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

I’ve been posting details about online privacy, profiling, and the dangers of accumulating everything about everyone and tracking their every movement for months.

We are actively trading our privacy – and that could and is likely to eventually mean our FREEDOM – for all these “free” services that aren’t free. Remember that those who fail to study history are destined to repeat it and consider how much more efficiently we could all be rounded up and disposed of now than the Nazi’s were able to do with IBM holerith machines.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

You all speak of Google as this “monster” to “fight”, but keep in mind that you choose to use every single service in this list. Every single one of these services has a terms of use and privacy policy that details what Google will and won’t do in providing the service to you, in regards to your data. Most people don’t read them — Google can’t make you read them, and the fact that most people don’t read them doesn’t make Google a monster. Maybe the monster to fight is user apathy.

By: Shamus

Shamus — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Well said, Anonymous. The monster is always us. Without a strong dosage of apathy *and* participation, monsters cannot arise. That’s why you and I bother commenting on blog posts which Sergey Brin will never read.

By: Internet Strategist

Internet Strategist — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Think bigger than Google. Bigger than countries. Get the real picture. I don’t know about anyone else, but I don’t care if Sergey or anyone else at Google reads what I post. It is those who are still asleep that I hope might become aware of where we are being led in time to stop following like sheep to the slaughter.

By: Shamus

Shamus — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Bigger than countries? Bigger than Google? Could the Internet be a military project, with former NSA and CIA suits propping up Network Solutions and others? Yes, we know this. It’s too damn convenient to stop using. We’d need a whole new infrastructure, TCP/IP from the ground up.

By: Internet Strategist

Internet Strategist — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Yes, either a whole new Internet, a huge sea-change among the lemmings, or the willingness to walk away completely from the system if it comes to that.

By: Shamus

Shamus — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Ah, but as an Internet Strategist, could you walk away?

By: Moti Karmona

Moti Karmona — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

“We are moving to a Google that knows more about you.” (Google CEO Eric Schmidt, February 9, 2005)

Did you know that Gmail have “No Deletion Policy” for your emails? (Privacy Time Bomb @ Google)