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Facebook is in the privacy spotlight but should Google be next

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Re: Facebook is in the privacy spotlight but should Google be next

#11

Post by notacoward »

Google is on the list, but I'm going to break away from the flock and say they shouldn't be next. Credit agencies and data brokers, who facilitate the worst kinds of third-party privacy violation and about whom most people know very little, should go next. Then the government itself. Then Google, and then Amazon.

BTW, if you want to have some fun, just try to imagine that the the government's interest in Facebook's data practices is not so much to regulate it as to copy it - either for the government itself or for election campaigns. IMO that makes a lot of their otherwise nonsensical or inconsistent behavior much more understandable. Creepy. They totally want to know more about us than Facebook and Google put together; they just don't know how.

Re: Facebook is in the privacy spotlight but should Google be next

#13

Post by mtgx »

dschuetz wrote: post #7

Fun fact: Google collects much more data from Android devices than from iOS devices. This might be unsurprising, and even obvious, but I was surprised how precise and intrusive that data is. The whole time I was using an Android phone with my google account logged in on the device, google recorded and retained basically everything. My location, without even me using the maps app. My old contacts which I deleted from…

It also annoys the hell out of me how often companies get away with something if they just say "Whoops, it was a mistake/bug."

Google was recently found to track Android users' location even when they didn't have their GPS on. And they said it was a "bug". Like I'm just going to believe that from a company whose main objective is to track as much about us as possible.

But my point is the FTC should have slapped them with a major (at least tens of millions to hundreds of millions of dollars, depending how long they've been doing it and to how many people) even if this was a bug.

If you tracked or collected data without users' consent, you get fined - bigly. No ifs or buts about it. Enough with the BS excuses and apology tours while they pocket billions from the "error" or "mistake."

Re: Facebook is in the privacy spotlight but should Google be next

#14

Post by modi15 »

The biggest reason Google's name hasnt come up yet is probably because most of these senators are on Google's payrolls. That Google pays for favourable research is already well established.

The fact that no one has even raised a finger at Google, which by all accounts does a more pervasive job at monitoring people, speaks volumes on how well entrenched it is in media circles. The fact that Google can more or less kill any media outlet literally at a flick of a button is reason enough that it should be shut down hook, line and sinker.

Re: Facebook is in the privacy spotlight but should Google be next

#15

Post by bilbo0s »

notacoward wrote: post #11

Google is on the list, but I'm going to break away from the flock and say they shouldn't be next . Credit agencies and data brokers, who facilitate the worst kinds of third-party privacy violation and about whom most people know very little, should go next. Then the government itself. Then Google, and then Amazon. BTW, if you want to have some fun, just try to imagine that the the government's interest in Facebook's…

"...Google is on the list, but I'm going to break away from the flock and say they shouldn't be next. Credit agencies and data brokers ... should go next...

Why can't it be both?

Serious question.

Re: Facebook is in the privacy spotlight but should Google be next

#16

Post by ralusek »

notbeevil wrote: post #10

It is totally ridiculous. If people really care, why some apps like WeChat controlled by Dictatorship are allowed in America?

Because some people, like myself, are perfectly happy to just not use them. There are alternatives to authoritarianism, and America was supposed to be one of them.

Re: Facebook is in the privacy spotlight but should Google be next

#17

Post by mtreis86 »

notacoward wrote: post #11

Google is on the list, but I'm going to break away from the flock and say they shouldn't be next . Credit agencies and data brokers, who facilitate the worst kinds of third-party privacy violation and about whom most people know very little, should go next. Then the government itself. Then Google, and then Amazon. BTW, if you want to have some fun, just try to imagine that the the government's interest in Facebook's…

No need to imagine it - the closing statement given by Grassley during the hearing was basically asking Zuckerberg for help with propaganda.

"So they get a distorted view of it, and — and really we — congressmen get along more than the public thinks. But these attitudes of the public, we've got to change and people of your position and your influence, you can do a lot to change this.

Whether I know you got plenty time around your corporation, through your corporation or privately, anything you can do to reduce this cynicism because we have a — a perfect constitution, maybe it's not perfect, but we got a very good constitution — the longest one written constitution in the history of man — mankind.

And — but if people don't have faith in the institutions of government, and then it's — it's our responsibility to enhance that faith so they have less cynicism in us, you know, we don't have a very strong democracy just because we've got a good constitution.

So I hope that everybody will do whatever they can to help enhance respect for government, including speaking to myself. I got to bend over backwards to do what I can so they don't — so I don't add to that cynicism."

Re: Facebook is in the privacy spotlight but should Google be next

#18

Post by matlin »

ocdtrekkie wrote: post #8
matlin wrote: post #6

The difference is that Google doesn't share that information with other firms. Having centralized information for a user is important to many (you can always spread it across multiple emails and accounts) but I think violation of privacy is the main reason Facebook is under investigation not centralization of data.

Google is its own third party: There is no appreciable difference between Facebook sharing your data with an ad company and Google sharing your data with their own built-in ad company.

There definitely is... That's the whole point of Facebook's Senate hearing. If it stays within company and can't be used by directly by third parties for their own agendas like influencing elections. I 100% think that we should be weary of over centralized information but we are talking about two very different scenarios: even a small social network with relatively little information can be very dangerous if it leaks personal data.

Re: Facebook is in the privacy spotlight but should Google be next

#19

Post by jacquesm »

matlin wrote: post #6

The difference is that Google doesn't share that information with other firms. Having centralized information for a user is important to many (you can always spread it across multiple emails and accounts) but I think violation of privacy is the main reason Facebook is under investigation not centralization of data.

> The difference is that Google doesn't share that information with other firms.

Google absolutely shares that information with other firms:

https://developers.google.com/ad-exchange/rtb/start

Re: Facebook is in the privacy spotlight but should Google be next

#20

Post by jacquesm »

notacoward wrote: post #9
matlin wrote: post #6

The difference is that Google doesn't share that information with other firms. Having centralized information for a user is important to many (you can always spread it across multiple emails and accounts) but I think violation of privacy is the main reason Facebook is under investigation not centralization of data.

> The difference is that Google doesn't share that information with other firms. Are you absolutely sure about that? Are you absolutely sure it will remain that way tomorrow, or next month?

He may be sure but he's wrong either way. The Google real-time bidding spec outlines pretty clearly what data Google will share with third parties.
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