Response to EFF complaint about student data privacy • Hacker News Board

Re: Response to EFF complaint about student data privacy

#31

Post by profeta » Fri, Dec 04, 2015, 12:48 PM UTC

a_bonobo wrote: post #3

Google: > There are no ads in these Core Services, and student data in these services is not used for advertising purposes. This isn't in the original EFF complaint, EFF specifically says (at least in the press release [1]) that Google doesn't advertise: EFF: >This allows Google to track, store on its servers, and data mine for non-advertising purposes Google then says: >In addition, our systems compile data aggregat…

summary of the summary: Google tracks students the same as they track you, regular users. To the fully extent the law allows and then some on the gray line.

Re: Response to EFF complaint about student data privacy

#32

Post by profeta » Fri, Dec 04, 2015, 12:50 PM UTC

pdkl95 wrote: post #13

dvdplm wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree with you. I get the impression that data aggregation&analysis is so deeply ingrained in Google company culture that it's entirely possible the responsible people truly believes nothing went wrong here.

From PBS Frontline's "United States Of Secrets" (part 2): LIZ FIGUEROA, (D) State Senator, CA, 1998-06: We walk into this room, and it’s myself and two of my staff— my chief of staff and one of my attorneys. And across from us was Larry, Sergey, and their attorney. All of a sudden, Sergey started talking to me. He said, “Senator, how would you feel if a robot went into your home and read your diary and read your fina…

Senator, if i was spending billions on robots to go to people homes and read their diaries and then explode before leaving, would you think there was some ulterior motive on me building those robots?

Re: Response to EFF complaint about student data privacy

#33

Post by profeta » Fri, Dec 04, 2015, 12:58 PM UTC

microtonal wrote: post #5

Besides not addressing the points that EFF raised, one of my serious problems with Google Apps (as a user) is data leakage across services and accounts. Some examples: - Google Hangouts is one of the covered apps. But to be actually useful (e.g. if you want to share images), you had to turn on Google+. Images end up in Google+ photo albums, which are not covered by the Google Apps agreement and the data can be mined…

I am one of the suckers that try to live with two google accounts.

It is maddening.

For example, if you do not agree to g+ on your main account and by mistake you select that account on the dropdown from hangouts or the play store* then you get the EULA agreement and there is no way to go back to the app and select another account if you don't agree. Because as soon as you decline you exit the app, and opening the app again will how the aggrement for the last selected account, if you having another account already green lighted. The workaround? remove one account. clear data on that app, and redo everything.

* there is no way to NOT show the main (undesired) account on the drop down, and you have to use the dropdown a lot on hangouts as SMS is another account! so every time i move from sms to wifi calls, i have 1 in 2 chances of screwing everything, even more so as my profile pic on my main account is not shown because i never agreed to some policy that would allow it

Re: Response to EFF complaint about student data privacy

#34

Post by dozzie » Fri, Dec 04, 2015, 1:02 PM UTC

microtonal wrote: post #5

Besides not addressing the points that EFF raised, one of my serious problems with Google Apps (as a user) is data leakage across services and accounts. Some examples: - Google Hangouts is one of the covered apps. But to be actually useful (e.g. if you want to share images), you had to turn on Google+. Images end up in Google+ photo albums, which are not covered by the Google Apps agreement and the data can be mined…

And why exactly are you supprised that services designed to be integrated deeply with one another are integrated with one another? Integration pretty much guarantees that data will leak between them.

This is one of the main reasons why I don't use Google services, except for their search engine.

Re: Response to EFF complaint about student data privacy

#35

Post by cmcnally » Fri, Dec 04, 2015, 1:18 PM UTC

dozzie wrote: post #34

microtonal wrote: post #5

Besides not addressing the points that EFF raised, one of my serious problems with Google Apps (as a user) is data leakage across services and accounts. Some examples: - Google Hangouts is one of the covered apps. But to be actually useful (e.g. if you want to share images), you had to turn on Google+. Images end up in Google+ photo albums, which are not covered by the Google Apps agreement and the data can be mined…

And why exactly are you supprised that services designed to be integrated deeply with one another are integrated with one another? Integration pretty much guarantees that data will leak between them. This is one of the main reasons why I don't use Google services, except for their search engine.

Have you tried DuckDuckGo? With the exception of maps and directions, I actually prefer their search experience to Google's.

Re: Response to EFF complaint about student data privacy

#36

Post by swiley » Fri, Dec 04, 2015, 1:41 PM UTC

The university I go to makes a point of telling us almost every day that we have no rights because we signed them away when we accepted the application.

Re: Response to EFF complaint about student data privacy

#37

Post by dboreham » Fri, Dec 04, 2015, 1:47 PM UTC

DadFoundMy wrote: post #10

I am an American high school senior and can say confidently that most American students are screwed over pretty extensively when it comes to the software they are forced to use. I have several classes that require the use of proprietary software such as Google classroom, Microsoft silver light, and Adobe flash. On top of that I cannot even remember the last time I was given a document that wasn't a .docx. It would be…

My two sons are in middle school. The school has been transitioning to Google (from self-hosted Windows/Office). They presented a computer/network use and privacy policy for parents to sign. After reading it I sat my kids down and told them to under no circumstances do anything with the school's computers or WiFi network other than activity strictly related to their school assignments. No personal email, no casual web browsing, nothing. They know to use their smart phones for anything non-school related, and to never connect those devices to the school's network.

Re: Response to EFF complaint about student data privacy

#38

Post by dozzie » Fri, Dec 04, 2015, 1:53 PM UTC

cmcnally wrote: post #35

dozzie wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And why exactly are you supprised that services designed to be integrated deeply with one another are integrated with one another? Integration pretty much guarantees that data will leak between them. This is one of the main reasons why I don't use Google services, except for their search engine.

Have you tried DuckDuckGo? With the exception of maps and directions, I actually prefer their search experience to Google's.

I do use it on handhelds (my browser of choice happened to change its default search engine to Bing, which I dislike and distrust, and used to crash on Google). It feels a little too off in its search results for my usual desktop work.

Re: Response to EFF complaint about student data privacy

#39

Post by krisdol » Fri, Dec 04, 2015, 1:59 PM UTC

cmcnally wrote: post #35

dozzie wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And why exactly are you supprised that services designed to be integrated deeply with one another are integrated with one another? Integration pretty much guarantees that data will leak between them. This is one of the main reasons why I don't use Google services, except for their search engine.

Have you tried DuckDuckGo? With the exception of maps and directions, I actually prefer their search experience to Google's.

It's been my home page for years. Originally i would still often go directly to google for better results, but each year the amount of times I'd do that decreased. Now I'm actually really happy with DDG results, and when I do perform the same search on Google, it ends up being less accurate. I think this is because Google has such a huge belief that personalization yields accuracy, but it doesn't. Past trends don't always predict future patterns. Google gimped their search engine in my totally honest opinion. It's completely useless until I filter for "Verbatim Search", because they keep guessing at synonyms for my search terms and randomly leaving out terms their algorithm thinks aren't important to me. Google.com is such a downright horrible experience for me, a once wonderful gateway that is now just a necessary evil at best.

Re: Response to EFF complaint about student data privacy

#40

Post by witty_username » Fri, Dec 04, 2015, 2:22 PM UTC

mtgx wrote: post #23

medlazik wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>a legally enforceable document whereby companies promise to refrain from collecting, using, or sharing students’ personal information >This is not connected to any specific person How can data not connected to any specific person be considered personal information? I mean what's bad here, the fact they collect it and then scrap the personal information? Or the fear they probably don't?

So you think that if law enforcement (from any country) knocks on Google's door, they will say "sorry, we can't provide that individual's data, because we collected it in aggregate "? Of course not. Google still has that individual's data and can personally identify him. It's just their policy not to use that data when using machine learning and whatnot to get a result out of it. Also, such "anonymized data" is never…

I think Chrome Sync does support client-side encryption. I set an encryption password, and it seems to be client-side.