Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Google Calendar Unexpectedly Leaks Private Information

shkspr.mobi

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

81–90 of 138 posts

Re: Google Calendar Unexpectedly Leaks Private Information

#81

Post by DanBC »

ddalex wrote: 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.

That is good advice. Let's see a change to all the peivacy policies so it is made clearer.

"Anything you enter might be leaked. We might not warn you before we leak your information. We have complex confusing interactions between your accounts on all our services, and we hide the settings pages, but if any information is lealed then LOL that's your fault".

I kind of feel sorry for Google here - it's the 21st centuary and people are still persecuted for their sex or sexual preference. Part of the outrage is misplaced here - why the hell should she feel the need to hide such a fundamental aspect of herself from her colleagues?

But then again, who cares what the reason was? She wasn't trolling or abusive or trying to male the Internet a worse place, so let her use whatever name she wants and stop linking everything together.

There are much better ways of doing unified accounts that the mess that Google has given us.

Re: Google Calendar Unexpectedly Leaks Private Information

#82

Post by Karunamon »

blueskin_ wrote: post #48
ritikk4 wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No I'm not paid by anyone, can't I just have a different opinion that yours with it being paid PR work?!

Your persistence, repeating the same point, and use of multiple accounts suggest otherwise.

I agree with the point. Does this mean I am now a paid shill? FFS, that's about as ad-hominem as it gets. Stop it.

Re: Google Calendar Unexpectedly Leaks Private Information

#83

Post by djim »

this is a feature. it's actually pretty awesome for setting up quick meetings. It's a function of the "Quick add" feature that carries over into the title of the event: https://support.google.com/calendar/answer/36604?hl=en

Edit: I am very familiar with Google's products, having helped many businesses move to Google Apps through the years. "Features" like this often surprise users and it is not unusual to get negative reactions. Normally, once you show someone how it works and explain that it isn't likely to change, they adapt.

Re: Google Calendar Unexpectedly Leaks Private Information

#84

Post by raverbashing »

r0h1n wrote: post #76
raverbashing wrote: post #66

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.

I'm skeptical

A whitelist wouldn't work, because these people need to be contacted from the outside, from people with gmail addresses (usually goes through a secretary though)

A dedicated (unfiltered) internal email sounds more likely, or just routing directly google.com to google.com addresses.

But then again this is google and maybe internally it's only Hangouts

Re: Google Calendar Unexpectedly Leaks Private Information

#85

Post by frandroid »

master-ruse-man wrote: post #68
raverbashing wrote: post #66

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" ?

What about we flood their calendar about this? ;)

http://i3.kym-cdn.com/entries/icons/original/000/012/132/tha...

Re: Google Calendar Unexpectedly Leaks Private Information

#87

Post by bentcorner »

djim wrote: post #83

this is a feature. it's actually pretty awesome for setting up quick meetings. It's a function of the "Quick add" feature that carries over into the title of the event: https://support.google.com/calendar/answer/36604?hl=en Edit: I am very familiar with Google's products, having helped many businesses move to Google Apps through the years. "Features" like this often surprise users and it is not unusual to get negativ…

Ugh, I understand that it can be useful for some people, but I find natural language parsing of calendar events intrusive and annoying.

99% of the time it ends up parsing a field incorrectly, and if I wanted to set a field it's on the form anyway, so why bother? In this case, why parse out an email address and send them an invite when there's an "invite" text box on the same page?

If the only way to set the time, date and invite list was to have the subject line get parsed, it would be obvious that this sort of thing will occur.

Honestly, to me this is a solution in search of a problem.

Re: Google Calendar Unexpectedly Leaks Private Information

#88

Post by dredmorbius »

judk wrote: post #75
dredmorbius wrote: post #40

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?

http://lmgtfy.com/?q=FUD

Re: Google Calendar Unexpectedly Leaks Private Information

#89

Post by djim »

bentcorner wrote: post #87
djim wrote: post #83

this is a feature. it's actually pretty awesome for setting up quick meetings. It's a function of the "Quick add" feature that carries over into the title of the event: https://support.google.com/calendar/answer/36604?hl=en Edit: I am very familiar with Google's products, having helped many businesses move to Google Apps through the years. "Features" like this often surprise users and it is not unusual to get negativ…

Ugh, I understand that it can be useful for some people, but I find natural language parsing of calendar events intrusive and annoying. 99% of the time it ends up parsing a field incorrectly, and if I wanted to set a field it's on the form anyway, so why bother? In this case, why parse out an email address and send them an invite when there's an "invite" text box on the same page? If the only way to set the time, dat…

but you can create an event from the calendar interface prior to going into the event interface. from the calendar interface, it only gives you the option of creating a title. so i can put meet with name@email.com and create the event. that's it.

Google Calendar should TOTALLY notify you you are adding someone to the event and ask if you want to send an invite. Also, if you are in the events interface and add someone's email to the title, it should add that person to the guest list on the fly. It should do these things, but it doesn't. I think that is the root of the complaint, not the feature itself.

Re: Google Calendar Unexpectedly Leaks Private Information

#90

Post by Shank »

I'm going to take a stab here and say that "Automatically add invitations to my calendar" being set to yes is what allows you to be on the receiving end of this. Can someone try turning that setting off in the gear menu and repeating this?

It would at least stop spammers (and people on HN from inviting execs to reminders about this).

Post reply on HN