Demand Your Data From Google, Facebook, Says Father 'Net

[exfileme]

All that data siphoned by Google, Facebook and other websites could be used to create personalized services, says the creator of the Internet.

Demand Your Data From Google, Facebook, Says Father 'Net : Read more

 

[besplatan]

I don't care what personal information Google and Facebook collect. They offer useful and free (or "free") services, and in return they get data that gives them a better idea of what products to offer me. Where's the downside in that?

 

[nebun]

[citation][nom]besplatan[/nom]I don't care what personal information Google and Facebook collect. They offer useful and free (or "free") services, and in return they get data that gives them a better idea of what products to offer me. Where's the downside in that?[/citation]
nothing is free...remember that

 

[Verrin]

[citation][nom]besplatan[/nom]I don't care what personal information Google and Facebook collect. They offer useful and free (or "free") services, and in return they get data that gives them a better idea of what products to offer me. Where's the downside in that?[/citation]

I think you missed the point entirely.

 

[amigafan]

Nothing is ever free (pun intended on besplatan's nick). Some of us wouldn't mind paying a reasonable fee for a good service if it came with (if not protection then at least) respect of privacy.

Big companies (like Google) offer no alternative, they give great (even essential) services but strictly under their own terms.

 

[besplatan]

Sure (that's why I put the free in quotes), but I really fail to see the downside. Basically Google is a giant machine that wants to find out what my heart desires, and then give it to me, usually at lower prices than stores I might pass by just walking around or that my friends might recommend. Additionally, Google will let me research products it's offering through ads, so I can find the best deal or an alternative (that doesn't even have to advertise through Google).

If I wanted to have a person do what Google is doing, I'd have to give them a lot more than my personal information. Meanwhile, Google is not only doing it for "free", it's also giving me Android, Google Maps, Gmail, Google Docs, and lots of other stuff, just for the opportunity to find out what makes me tick and give their customers/advertisers a chance to make me happy.

That's at least how I see it.

 

[billybobser]

When I don't have adblock, the google ads tend to advertise what I recently looked out.

Defeating any purpose of collecting my data and would generate 0 sales.

It was just an annoying reminder about what I wasn't interested in.

Bravo!

Adverts these days, despite the massive amounts of data collected, are completely rubbish at selling things.

 

[guardianangel42]

[citation][nom]besplatan[/nom]Sure (that's why I put the free in quotes), but I really fail to see the downside. Basically Google is a giant machine that wants to find out what my heart desires, and then give it to me, usually at lower prices than stores I might pass by just walking around or that my friends might recommend. Additionally, Google will let me research products it's offering through ads, so I can find the best deal or an alternative (that doesn't even have to advertise through Google).If I wanted to have a person do what Google is doing, I'd have to give them a lot more than my personal information. Meanwhile, Google is not only doing it for "free", it's also giving me Android, Google Maps, Gmail, Google Docs, and lots of other stuff, just for the opportunity to find out what makes me tick and give their customers/advertisers a chance to make me happy.That's at least how I see it.[/citation]

The downside is this: Google, Facebook, and Twitter's only motivations to not abuse your privacy is the letter of the law in whichever country you live in. They would make significantly more money if they could easily sell that information to the highest bidder. As of right now, most major companies are following that letter relatively well.

So long as these corporations continue to act as benefactors, your scenario is completely valid. However human nature being what it is, it would be naive to believe that that will always be the case.

This privacy bubble will burst when the next Enron or Bernie Madoff shows up. A corporation or individual that maintains a facade of morality while finding loopholes in, or outright breaking, the law to get ahead.

Privacy is a commodity, and it is in many corporations interests to take advantage of it. People don't like the current trend because of this highly likely possibility. That's the problem.

 

[del35]

Previously he warned that social-networking "silos" and closed networks like Apple threaten the very openness and universality that he and his fellow architects saw as central to the Internet's design.

I have been saying this for years. Apple is also destroying technology and replacing with hype like its Samsung manufactured retina display. The sooner we trash Apple and its iJailedyou locked down devices the sooner the march of technology will resume.

 

[del35]

I don't care what personal information Google and Facebook collect.They offer useful and free (or "free") services...

Prison inmates get free services like food, medicine, water, tv, a bed, a total lack of having to take care of their destination in life. In brief, prison certainly relieves inmates of the responsibility of being free or having a private sphere.

 

[alidan]

i get many services for free that i would most likely have to pay 15-20$ a year for if it wasn't for ads

google wants to exploit that by gearing ads tward me... go for it, i do not care...

my infromation is out there and probably enough for identity theft because doctors, hospitals, and employers are incompetent at their jobs of privacy protection. but online, i dont think enough info has ever been give out for true id theft.

 

[Zetto]

[citation][nom]besplatan[/nom]I don't care what personal information Google and Facebook collect. They offer useful and free (or "free") services, and in return they get data that gives them a better idea of what products to offer me. Where's the downside in that?[/citation]

The downside is you will see the world and internet filtered through google glasses, you'll see only what they decide you want to see, not what you want.
See the irreversible danger in that?

 

[bigbaconeater]

[citation][nom]del35[/nom]I have been saying this for years. Apple is also destroying technology and replacing with hype like its Samsung manufactured retina display. The sooner we trash Apple and its iJailedyou locked down devices the sooner the march of technology will resume.[/citation]

Talk about complete bias. This article has NOTHING to do with Apple, yet without fail someone else has thrown in an anti-Apple remark. I am not even an apple user, but that's just bias

 

[Verrin]

[citation][nom]bigbaconeater[/nom]Talk about complete bias. This article has NOTHING to do with Apple, yet without fail someone else has thrown in an anti-Apple remark. I am not even an apple user, but that's just bias[/citation]

"Nothing"? You must have missed the part where the article specifically addresses Apple.

 

[besplatan]

[citation][nom]guardianangel42[/nom]The downside is this: Google, Facebook, and Twitter's only motivations to not abuse your privacy is the letter of the law in whichever country you live in.[/quote]

Same goes for governments, who historically have had a far worse record than corporations in abuses of rights, and not just the right to privacy.

At least a corporation ultimately has to make you happy, because you're giving your money voluntarily, and none of their motivations include your death, imprisonment or poverty.

 

[etudions]

Never say never, there is always something to try.

 

[ankaj]

[citation][nom]del35[/nom]I have been saying this for years. Apple is also destroying technology and replacing with hype like its Samsung manufactured retina display. The sooner we trash Apple and its iJailedyou locked down devices the sooner the march of technology will resume.[/citation]

I am curious exactly what technology has Apple destroyed? I will agree that they do not invent much of what they sell currently, but they do package existing technologies up very nicely.

 

[K2N hater]

[citation][nom]besplatan[/nom][citation][nom]guardianangel42[/nom]The downside is this: Google, Facebook, and Twitter's only motivations to not abuse your privacy is the letter of the law in whichever country you live in.[/quote]Same goes for governments, who historically have had a far worse record than corporations in abuses of rights, and not just the right to privacy. At least a corporation ultimately has to make you happy, because you're giving your money voluntarily, and none of their motivations include your death, imprisonment or poverty.[/citation]
Most probably you remember in the 70s/80s Bayer spreaded AIDS and hepatitis C all around the world with contaminated haemophilia products. By the time CDC and FDA knew all about it and the only thing they worked really hard on was to contain the scandal. What I mean is that the Government is not always the source of corruption but the means for the corporation to spread their power and increase margins. According to the concept of globalization expanding corporations such as the aforementioned have acquired enough resources to corrupt governments all around the globe in order to keep their expansion going free of regulation hence we're to see the rise of an empire of globalitarism - totalitarism sponsored by corporations. And Apple is sure to be among the very few corporations to rule peoples' desires and needs.

 

[del35]

Talk about complete bias. This article has NOTHING to do with Apple, yet without fail someone else has thrown in an anti-Apple remark. I am not even an apple user, but that's just bias

Apple has a bias against people who love freedom in technology. You are reversing the whole analysis and blaming the victims.

 

[del35]

I am curious exactly what technology has Apple destroyed? I will agree that they do not invent much of what they sell currently, but they do package existing technologies up very nicely.

The whole idea that hype, shine and iJailing is more important than substance and open standards is Apple main contribution and perhaps its only contribution to technology. Take their hyped Samsung manufactured Retina display. Talk about a total lack of technological vision hyped-up as something great to lure technologically clueless Zombies to buy their locked-down drm infested overpriced trap-boxes.