Archive for the ‘Privacy’ category

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Out of the circle: I just deleted my Google+ account

July 27th, 2011

I’ve been ambiguous about Google for quite a while now. What started as an amazingly innovative and efficient search engine, grew up to be quite a monster of internet services and advertising tools. That, in itself, isn’t a bad thing. A big company isn’t necessarily a bad company.

Yet, bit by bit, Google services seem less and less appealing. First – the flagship – the almighty Google search engine. Gimmicks like Google Suggest and Google Instant became annoying rather quickly, and didn’t add much to the search efficiency – rather the opposite. Then, there’s the fact that Google seems to think that it knows what are you looking for – even without you asking for it. When you search certain keywords, Google will give you results which include many “related” keywords, but a lot of the time it just interferes with the search process.

To top it off, the amount of data and info Google’s gathering about us is frightening. And finally – the results are useless, still full of spam and too mainstream in many cases (That’s why I use DuckDuckGo in most of my English searches) .

Gmail is still great, but then there’s always that nagging fear that one day you’ll try to login and find that your account have been closed, canceled or hacked into, and no one in Google will lift a finger to help you with that. I have regular pop3 mail and many backups, but that’s not enough for me. I eagerly await a webmail that supports Hebrew in an efficient way – when I find that, I’ll switch immediately.

And then there’s Google+, which so many rave on and on about. Yeah, it’s cool and slick, it’s fast and you can have a nice social media experience with it. Yes. So? That’s also true for Twitter, Facebook and reddit. Oh, and hey – everyone is on Google+, too. Again – so? “Everyone is doing it” has never been a good reason for anything.

I have several websites and blogs, accounts on LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter and reddit – there’s no reason for me to maintain yet another data-sucking account, even if many other people think it’s cool.

So, I deleted my Google+ account. I find that having one less Google service is a good idea. I think it’s time for me to limit my Google exposure. Where there are substitutes – I’ll happily use them. Where there aren’t any – I’ll tread carefully.

 

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TL;DR: I deleted my Google+ account. Why? Because FUCK YOU, that’s why.

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Posted in Privacy, SEO and Search Engines, Social Networks

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Facebook, MySpace and Digg have been Selling Your Data

May 21st, 2010

“Trust No One” is about the best advice you can get when it comes to internet privacy. When a big site promises you that it won’t sell, give, collect or use the personal data that you will trust it with – don’t believe a word.

According to the Wall Street Journal, “Facebook, MySpace and several other social-networking sites have been sending data to advertising companies that could be used to find consumers’ names and other personal details, despite promises they don’t share such information without consent.”.

That really says it all. These sites (as well as Digg, LiveJournal, Hi5 and Xanga) sent advertising companies personal information about users – without the users ever agreeing to it.

People commenting to these news sound less than surprise, as if expecting this to happen. It seems that many people have already given up their privacy and don’t really care what sort of personal information is floating out there. For those of you who still care, just know that when it comes to information – everything is for sale and all bets are off. It’s up to you to decide what will you do about it.

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Posted in Privacy, Social Networks

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Google Collected Personal Data Sent Over Open WiFi Networks

May 15th, 2010

We already know that Google collects every bit of info it can about its users, and stores it for unknown uses.

Now it’s been revealed that for 3 years, Google has collected personal information from unknowing people. This data was collected during the Google Street View mapping process. Google claims the data collection happened due to an error in programing.

This admission is the result of regulators in Europe started asking Google some serious questions about Street View. The European Regulators wanted to know what data Google collects in the mapping process, and what it does with that data.

About two weeks ago Google posted a blog post and claimed that “Google does not collect or store payload data” – which is the actual information being transmitted by users over unprotected networks.

That was a lie. A more recent post admits to that lie and says: “…it’s now clear that we have been mistakenly collecting samples of payload data from open (i.e. non-password-protected) WiFi networks, even though we never used that data in any Google products.”

Now Google could be accused of intercepting private communications and violating wiretap laws in the United States. A legal shit-storm is bound to happen.

In the mean time,  remember: Trust No One, and password-protect your WiFi. You never know who might be looking through your data.

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Posted in Internet, Privacy, Tech News

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Google to Offer Buzz Privacy Reset

April 5th, 2010

There are many privacy issues surrounding Google Buzz, a service that has left a lot of Gmail users unhappy and exposed. The auto-follow feature, in particular, has raised concerns and objections – even up to the White House.

Now, in an effort to address at least some of the privacy issues, Google will offer a privacy settings reset to all Buzz users. Google Buzz users will need to confirm (or change) their Buzz settings. This will start rolling out tomorrow. In essence, every user will be prompted with a confirmation page the next time they click the Buzz tab.

This might be too little too late, as much private information was exposed without the consent of Buzz users. Personally, I have no intentions of using Google Buzz. I shut it off on the first day it was launched, and I see no reason to retry it.

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Posted in Internet, Privacy, Social Networks

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Constantly Tweeting your Location? Your House Might get Robbed

February 19th, 2010

Foursquare users beware: the information you tweet regarding your location might be used to reveal when is your house empty – which makes it a great target for a burglary.

To prove a point, a threesome of Dutch fellows set up a Foursquare/Twitter mashup called PleaseRobMe. Here’s what they say about it on their site: “…The way in which people are stimulated to participate in sharing this information, is less awesome. Services like Foursquare allow you to fulfill some primeval urge to colonize the planet… The danger is publicly telling people where you are. This is because it leaves one place you’re definitely not… home”.

The site, which took the developers only 4 hours to set up, shows tweets of Foursquare players, an online game which is based on a person’s location in the real world. By following the updates on the site, anyone can know when certain people are not in their homes, which might make for a break-in opportunity.

“Our intention is not, and never has been, to have people burglarized”, claim the developers of PleaseRobMe. What they want is to show everyone how we are letting our privacy to go down the toilet, without even noticing. Foursquare might be a fun game, but it seems universally stupid to tell the world where you are at any given moment. Someone, someday, might take advantage of it. Mind the information you transmit to the world.

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Posted in Internet, Privacy

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