"The principles of openness and universal access that underpinned the creation of the internet three decades ago are under greater threat than ever, according to Google co-founder Sergey Brin. The threat to the freedom of the internet comes, he claims, from a combination of governments increasingly trying to control access and communication by their citizens, the entertainment industry's attempts to crack down on piracy, and the rise of 'restrictive' walled gardens such as Facebook and Apple, which tightly control what software can be released on their platforms." That governments - east and west - are trying to destroy the open web, that we know. As for Facebook and Apple... Well, all I know is that it is completely and utterly impossible to check what information Apple has about you. Unlike Google (more here) and to a lesser degree Facebook, Apple provides zero means to see, export, or delete the information they have on you, associated with your Apple ID or otherwise. In 2012, that's just sinister.
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Member since:2011-05-12
Member since:2009-05-19
Yet you make the claim that they sell your/my data. If you want to be a part of a rational discussion, the please defend your claim.
http://www.outsidethebeltway.com/rational-discussion-flowchart/
Member since:2012-03-14
for google to sell your data they have to construct a profile from you. that profile, as facebook profile, has your email id tagged with endless descriptions in their neat DB. " residence: Bronx / New york city" / "usually logs in from: ny public college, comcast block 100.121.121.*" / "is 34 years old" / "regularly communicates with users ids: xxx@gmail.com; xxxy@gmail.com " bla bla bla bla.
you get the picture. it's a relational database so that they can segment you and aggregate you with others in the same desired group by the advertiser. Now, this is not bad in itself, but it has the "inconvenient" side-aspect that for that to happen they have to completely categorize you.
You might be comfortable with that. i'm not. someone knowing that much about me makes me uncomfortable. While that may be completely innocent by now, considering the "authoritarian and paranoid drift" of the US government that demands data under dubious pretense and permissive laws, one day it might not be so innocent. And i say US gov because for now they are the crazy guy on the block. tomorrow might be other entity or china gov when you happen to go there on business . Or someone can break in google data base and steal that info from google to their own profits. the bad outcomes are endless.
Anyway you put it, there's slim benefit to you, the user/consumer/citizen of having your life spied and discriminated and categorized like that. IF you are willing to do that for a better recommendation for potato chips or a free email service, then fine for you. I on the other hand, am not.
Member since:2009-05-19
I agree that they have a lot of that information that US government could get access to. And that disturbs me.
However they don't sell your data - let us be poor, but just(as a Lithuanian saying goes). They sell advertisement space, nothing more. Saying that they sell data is an uninformed statement or an outright lie.
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Member since:
2009-05-19
If Google sells your data where can I buy it? Please do direct me to the portal where I, as an advertiser, can get phone numbers and emails of my visitors just to thank them for visiting.
(This is my canned response to the crap with words "sells your data")