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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

#21

Post by jacquesm »

matlin wrote: post #18
ocdtrekkie wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

Please stop spreading factually wrong information, especially on a subject as important as this one. Maybe research the material for a bit? The best place to start is doubleclick and their profiling options as well as the RTB spec. That will give you a pretty shocking (if I understand the level to which you are still in the dark correctly) insight into what kind of data is freely shared between ad tech companies amongst each other and their customers (agencies, advertisers).

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

#23

Post by jacquesm »

bilbo0s wrote: post #15
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.

Not only can it be both it should be both (or more correctly: all).

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

#24

Post by jacquesm »

mtgx wrote: post #13
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…

As long as money and politics are strongly intertwined it is unlikely this will happen within the country of origin of the company. Lobbyists are just too powerful.

And that's before we get into the kind of tricks and entity like Google or Facebook could pull if they decided to become an active participant rather than just a channel for advertising. If that hasn't already happened.

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

#25

Post by notacoward »

bilbo0s wrote: post #15
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.

Resources, including most relevantly attention, are finite. That's why the attention is only on Facebook now, when it should already be on these others as well. Much as I'd love for people to see all of the picture at once when they're trying to make policy, I don't think that's what really happens.

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

#26

Post by phonebucket »

bilbo0s wrote: post #15
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.

"Why can't it be both?"

In fairness to the OP, the notion of someone being next is coming from the headline, not the comment.

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

#27

Post by _o_ »

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…

I beg to disagree. We must first hit the largest violators as a lot of smaller companies will stop their practices when we do.

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

#28

Post by wepple »

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…

I’m all-in with google services and acknowledge they have an insane amount of data on me, but very happy to be an iPhone user.

At least it gives some basic form of separation between my phone and the services I use - under the assumption that google services will have to request access to things.

Under google+android, I have no confidence that there won’t be accidental or intentional data harvesting. My wife’s Pixel 2 came with everything enabled by default and that data it Hoover’s up automatically is crazy.

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

#29

Post by wepple »

My personal gut feel is that in the fairly long history (for a tech co), we’ve seen surprisingly little malicious use of data come from google. In a company of their size I’d expect a lot more screw ups and scandles, so perhaps they deserve a little more trust?

At the same time, they’re at the size and momentum that they should always be under scrutiny even if the answer keeps coming back “yeah they seem to be acting responsibly”. We don’t want to have an ambulance at the bottom of the cliff.

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

#30

Post by ocdtrekkie »

matlin wrote: post #18
ocdtrekkie wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

You do realize that Google has it's own reasons for wanting to influence elections, right? They operate their own PAC and spend millions of dollars donating to political candidates and lobbyist groups.

"Within company" is a meaningless distinction. It requires the assumption that Facebook or Google themselves are trustworthy, and smaller companies are not. But the big players themselves, are in fact, not trustworthy. So whether or not they sell the data or abuse it in-house is pretty much irrelevant.

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