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Google Calendar Unexpectedly Leaks Private Information

shkspr.mobi

71–80 of 138 posts

Re: Google Calendar Unexpectedly Leaks Private Information

#73
post #70

A good friend told me once: " the moment you enter info in an electronic device, you can assume it's public ". It was in response to me getting a pic of him wearing red thongs (dont' ask), but the point stands in regards to Google, any email account, your PC, your phone, and everything else.

I worry about an overly defeatist point of view here. Just because the security situation is so bad right now does not mean that it is unavoidably so.

Re: Google Calendar Unexpectedly Leaks Private Information

#74
post #3

The worst thing about things like this happening is the feeling of helplessness when you can't reach anyone in the company or when they just say "it's not a problem".

Or the company shill shows up and burns through four HN accounts trying to spread FUD. https://news.ycombinator.com/threads?id=ritikk https://news.ycombinator.com/threads?id=ritikk2 https://news.ycombinator.com/threads?id=ritikk3 https://news.ycombinator.com/threads?id=ritikk4 (Should I add the 5th link or wait for him to create that ID as well?)

The 5th has now also been created:

https://news.ycombinator.com/threads?id=ritikk5

Re: Google Calendar Unexpectedly Leaks Private Information

#75
post #3

The worst thing about things like this happening is the feeling of helplessness when you can't reach anyone in the company or when they just say "it's not a problem".

Or the company shill shows up and burns through four HN accounts trying to spread FUD. https://news.ycombinator.com/threads?id=ritikk https://news.ycombinator.com/threads?id=ritikk2 https://news.ycombinator.com/threads?id=ritikk3 https://news.ycombinator.com/threads?id=ritikk4 (Should I add the 5th link or wait for him to create that ID as well?)

What does "FUD" mean and how is it relevant here?

Re: Google Calendar Unexpectedly Leaks Private Information

#76

So the way to solve this is to create a note on my calendar with "Remind to complain about this to vic.gundotra@google.com larry.page@google.com" ?

I wouldn't be surprised if there are hardcoded rules that guard senior Google execs against such inadvertent (or by design, take your pick) communications from hoi polloi that uses their products.

Re: Google Calendar Unexpectedly Leaks Private Information

#77

This is not a "private information leak." It's expected behaviour. Entering information in that field to create a new event results in Google Calendar parsing your information as best as it can, to automatically set things like the date, time, event description and of course, the participants (the apparent privacy leak here.)

Personally I kinda wish we could use different terminology for this. When the phrase "leak private information" is used, I think of Target losing my credit card info. In this case a more accurate title would be "Google Calendar Sometimes Sends Emails on Your Behalf which You May Or May Not Want." Granted this title sucks and is no where near any kind of quality link bait.

Re: Google Calendar Unexpectedly Leaks Private Information

#78
post #2

Btw. ownCloud 6.0.1 was released yesterday: http://owncloud.org/releases/Changelog

I haven't tried it since the previous version, but syncing a few directories with thousands of small files completely brought owncloud to its knees. The type of database used didn't matter, the syncing just started taking longer and longer, and because it hadn't started an auto sync in the last 10 (I think it's default time is) minutes, it would start another and essentially never be able to finish attempting to sync.

Apart from that issue, I thought it was quite good, will have to give it another try.

Re: Google Calendar Unexpectedly Leaks Private Information

#79
post #41

One annoying thing about this is that it allows spammers to automatically add events to your calendar.

So THAT'S how they've been doing it. For the past week I've been inundated with spam events on my Google Calendar, it's been winding me right up.

Re: Google Calendar Unexpectedly Leaks Private Information

#80
post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Or the company shill shows up and burns through four HN accounts trying to spread FUD. https://news.ycombinator.com/threads?id=ritikk https://news.ycombinator.com/threads?id=ritikk2 https://news.ycombinator.com/threads?id=ritikk3 https://news.ycombinator.com/threads?id=ritikk4 (Should I add the 5th link or wait for him to create that ID as well?)

What does "FUD" mean and how is it relevant here?

Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt.
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