Serendipity or Snooping?
November 18, 2010
Barry Levine reports on Eric Schmidt’s presentation at the Tech Crunch Disrupt conference in “Eric Schmidt Sees Devices Running Your Life for You.” With a couple of brief nods to privacy concerns, the Google CEO touted his fantasy of a utopian future where computers anticipate your every move. Levine gives an example: “You’re walking down the street and your smartphone reminds you of your appointments, notes nearby sales of those shoes you’ve been searching for, and points out that your ex-girlfriend is in the restaurant on the corner.” This might send shivers of excitement down Schmidt’s spine, but it makes my hair stand on end. I don’t particularly care to have ex-boyfriends or anyone else know what restaurant I’m in. For anyone who’s been stalked this sounds more like a nightmare than a dream. Even if by some miracle we could assume everyone’s best intentions in this scenario, there’s a reason the Panopticon was a prison, not a luxury resort. And with recent backlashes against Facebook’s privacy controls, I think I’m not the only one who is still concerned about the openness of personal information online.
Alice Wasielewski, November 18, 2010
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How to Cope with Google: Change Your Name, Just Move
October 26, 2010
I find Math Club folks darned entertaining. I recall learning from someone that Google’s top dog suggested that one could deal with privacy issues by changing one’s name. No problem, but not exactly practical. Today (October 25, 2010) several people mentioned to me Dr. Schmidt’s suggestion regarding Street View’s imaging one’s home. The recommendation was, according to “Schmidt: Don’t Like Google Street View Photographing Your House? Then Move,” even more impractical than changing one’s name. In today’s real estate market, most folks struggle to make payments. The cost of moving is out of reach even if there were a compelling reason to uproot oneself. The idea of moving because Google is making snaps of one’s domicile is either pretty funny (my view) or pretty crazy (the view of one of the people in my office).
So which is it? Colbert Report material or an answer that could get you stuck in a hospital’s psychiatric ward for observation?
I side with the Math Club. Dr. Schmidt was just joking.
What’s not so funny is the mounting legal friction that Google faces. My concern is that the push back could impair Google’s ability to do deals. The issue is partially trust and partially mind share. With lawyers wanting discovery and depositions, the two Ds can get even the A student in Math Club in academic hot water. That’s bad for Google, its partners, and its stakeholders. Competitors know Google has lots of cash, but with Apple and Facebook surging, Google can no longer rely on controlled chaos to converge on a solution. Lawyers are into procedures and often lack a sense of humor.
Just move. Man, that’s a hoot. Getting a cow on top of a university bell tower will not elicit a chuckle from me. But “just move.” I am in stitches. Absolutely hilarious. But there is that other point of view… the hospital… the observation thing. Hmmm.
Stephen E Arnold, October 26, 2010
Google: No More Never Complain, Never Explain
October 23, 2010
The Straits Times reported “Google Sorry for Lapses.” Is this a change in method? I recall learning from one of my college professors at the cow town school to which I was admitted, “Never complain, never explain.” Now Google is apologizing, which combines complaining and explaining. If the write up is accurate, the Google may now be recognizing that it has created the equivalent of a ceramic brake slowing the Googlemobile to a snail’s pace. For a Googzilla, getting smoked by a snail is painful indeed. I opine that such friction may be worse than sitting out the senior prom in high school to work on a problem in partial derivatives.
Here’s the passage that caught my attention:
Mr Eustace [Google wizard and adult in charge of rocket science] provided Google’s most detailed description yet of the private data on unsecured wireless networks scooped up by Street View cars as they cruised through cities around the world taking pictures. ‘While most of the data is fragmentary, in some instances entire emails and URLs were captured, as well as passwords,’ he said. ‘We want to delete this data as soon as possible, and I would like to apologize again for the fact that we collected it in the first place. ‘We are mortified by what happened, but confident that these changes to our processes and structure will significantly improve our internal privacy and security practices for the benefit of all our users,’ Mr Eustace said.
Several observations:
- What about that phrase “most of the data is fragmentary”? “Data” is a plural but that matters not to the Google. The “most”? Well, that is more problematic and apparently ambiguous.
- With so many smart lads and lasses, how can such a mistake get propagated across the years and multiple versions of the scampering little data gobbling vehicles? Interesting to me, but I am not mortified. Google is. Ooops.
- After 12 years, a couple of alleged stalkers, and an Odwalla beverage delivery truck full of legal hassles, the Google is fixing up its “internal privacy and security practices.” I do like the categorical affirmative. Too bad the multiple exceptions create a bit of a logical issue for this goose.
In short, complaining and explaining perhaps?
Stephen E Arnold, October 23, 2010
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Google Waffles Backwards
October 21, 2010
Canada is annoyed at the Google. My view is that Google is mostly indifferent to legal hassles from countries. I mean when an enterprise can blow off the world’s largest market, what’s the difference when the likes of maple leaf lovers get annoyed. But there is an interesting item in the story “Google Ditches All Street View Wi-Fi Scanning.” Here’s the passage that caught my attention:
Google has no plans to resume using its Street View cars to collect information about the location of Wi-Fi networks, a practice that led to a flurry of privacy probes after the company said it unintentionally captured fragments of unencrypted data. The disclosure appeared in a report on Street View released today by Canadian privacy commissioner Jennifer Stoddart, who said that “collection is discontinued and Google has no plans to resume it.” Assembling an extensive list of the location of Wi-Fi access points can aid in geolocation, especially in areas where connections to cell towers are unreliable. Instead, Stoddart said that, based on her conversations with headquarters in Mountain View, Ca., “Google intends to obtain the information needed to populate its location-based services database” from “users’ handsets.”
No problem in my opinion. My thought is that the Math Club had a plan, a rogue engineer’s code, and some surprised customers. Now the GOOG seems to be doing the type of thinking one expects from a mere MBA. Is this progress? Depends on one’s point of view, right?
Stephen E Arnold, October 21, 2010
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Another Google Issue
September 19, 2010
Short honk: I don’t have much to say about this series of news stories and their write ups. I thought Google’s Summer of Anguish was over. Guess not. Why? Check out these titles. You may want to read the stories, but I just skimmed them:
- Google Engineer Fired for Spying on Teenagers
- Ex-Googler Allegedly Spied on User E-Mails, Chats
- Google Fires Engineer for Privacy Breach
Not even a gentle honk from Harrod’s Creek. Maybe this will be an endless summer for the Google?
Stephen E Arnold, September 19, 2010
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ChaCha and KGB: Seeing Eye to Eye
August 23, 2010
Who offers the most trusted search system for the Web and mobile. Is Google still the most trusted “go to” Internet search engine and with the advancement of mobile technology many mobile users can now conduct Google search from their mobile device.
“ChaCha, KGB See Text Messages as Alternative to Search Engines on Cell Phones” the companies ChaCha and KGB offer customers a simpler way to get answers. Users can send a question to ChaCha through a text or voice message and simply wait for a prompt reply from an agent. This is a free service but users should be prepared to receive advertisements from various providers. KGB service guides also can be contacted in a similar fashion except users must pay 99 cents and will not receive outside advertisements. Each is responsible for scouting out the latest information and delivering the most accurate up to date information possible. It’s not likely they are going to overtake Google fans but they could be a helpful addition.
Worth watching.
April Holmes, August 24, 2010
Quote to Note: No Anonymity
August 14, 2010
Google had a rough Friday the 13th. From the land that gestated, “There is no privacy. Get over it.” comes a Mozart DuPont variation. Point your browser thingy at “Google CEO Schmidt: No Anonymity Is the Future of Web.” Here’s the quote I noted:
Privacy is incredibly important,” Schmidt stated. “Privacy is not the same thing as anonymity. It’s very important that Google and everyone else respects people’s privacy. People have a right to privacy; it’s natural; it’s normal. It’s the right way to do things. But if you are trying to commit a terrible, evil crime, it’s not obvious that you should be able to do so with complete anonymity. There are no systems in our society which allow you to do that. Judges insist on unmasking who the perpetrator was. So absolute anonymity could lead to some very difficult decisions for our governments and our society as a whole.”
I seem to recall a bit of a snit with Cnet when that outfit published information about a certain Google executive.
I like the medieval approach. The kings and queens at the top operating in one way, and then the surfs digging potatoes and watching lords and ladies do pretty much what each wants. Seems fair to me.
Stephen E Arnold, August 14, 2010
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What Our Uncle Microsoft Knows
July 18, 2010
They all do it , so it’s unfair to single out Microsoft because pretty much every software vendor or Internet service collects information about you. Even while the experts tell us WAT, Bing and Hotmail do collect data when you use them, they also say they are not as concerned with what Big Brother ( Microsoft) knows as compared to other what other high profile companies collect. Still, they do collect data and here’s a few ways they do it. WAT, the validation process you go through when you first start your computer, doesn’t get too personal in an Orwellian sense but they do get the make and model of your computer and the region and language that applies. Bing and Hotmail get a little closer with IP addresses and unique identifiers contained in cookies. Perhaps you don’t need to worry through. Microsoft asserts that it deletes the IP addresses after six months.
Stephen E Arnold, July 18, 2010
Oui Oui to Dok Dok
July 13, 2010
It’s no surprise that email is the primary way business shares documents and personal users their information and the attachment is the modern envelope. The paradoxical problem with this method has been numbers and categorizing and there have always been many people working on streamlining this part of the Web experience.
As far as the flow of a typical business day is concerned the Holy Grail of embedded findability as far as attachments were concerned has centered around three areas:
- Verifying the most recent attachment because ( at least where business is concerned) there can be multiple ones from the same source
- Tracking the changes which makes sense where business is concerned
- Sharing changes with others
Those were the goals. And all had to be accomplished without interrupting the flow of a typical business day. This is a lucrative proposition if done right and the Canadians couldn’t ignore the possibilities with their answer called DokDok, which the Quebec firm says is an automatic way for their users to locate, update and share the most recent version of any email attachment.
The Montreal based start up was created in 2009 and they promise that DokDok is not anything like the file sharing applications that are trying to replace email. Of course one of the big questions that any prospects have here will be about security.
People want to know if DokDok will be reading their emails or at least have the ability to do so. To the firm’s credit the answer is no. DokDok only indexes metadata, none of the real content in the actual emails.
You don’t even need to give them your Google Apps password if security is your big issue. Still, nothing’s perfect and there are a few drawbacks to DokDok. It’s important to remember here that the new system works only with Gmail’s web interface and does not work with the standard Gmail account.
However, when they’re out of beta, the firm promises big changes.
It’s good to see that Google understands their services can use improving when a good idea comes along that helps to streamline a business day and increase productivity. That’s why it’s Oui Oui to DokDok.
Rob Starr, July 13, 2010
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Germany Dings Facebook
July 11, 2010
Maybe Germany has lost its patience with American companies. First, the country failed to see the innocence of the Googlers who were suck down broadcast Wi Fi data. Now Facebook is in the barrel. “German Officials Launch Legal Action against Facebook” makes clear that German authorities are not amused by Facebook. For me, the key passage in the write up was:
“We consider the saving of data from third parties, in this context, to be against data privacy laws,” said Johannes Caspar, head of Hamburg’s Data Protection Authority. Mr Caspar said he had received a number of complaints from people who had not signed up to Facebook, but whose details had been added to the site by friends. He accused Facebook of saving private data of non-members without their permission, to be used for marketing purposes.
Fun loving Californians often find their Bay to Breakers enthusiasm inappropriate for some folks. Like Google, Facebook will have to deal with what probably looks like an annoyance from Silicon Valley.
Good Bullenbeisser. Good boy.
In my experience, German officials may demonstrate some of the characteristics of the Bullenbeisser. Under slung jaw. Tenacious grip. Single mindedness. Oh, stubborn. Sometimes mean. Probably indifferent to adults running naked in the California sun.
Stephen E Arnold, July 11, 2010
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