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Google Announces Summer of Code 2008 Projects
An anonymous reader writes "Google announced today it had accepted 1,125 students to work on 175 Free and Open Source Projects this summer. This represents an increase of almost 25% over last year. Nearly 7,100 applications were received. For those who weren't accepted, there is an offer to send Google Swag to any student who completes their project anyway."
I understand your concerns over this. There is a very fine line between privacy violations and getting just enough data about user's activities to have useful data for developing other things that are immensely useful.
When collected, if the data is stripped of any identifying information I believe that there are hundreds of useful ways to use that data. Google trends is one of those ways. So I teeter on the fence about Google's treatment of personally identifying information. I hope that the 'don't be evil' motto runs deep enough through the company that they actually don't, yet still give the rest of the world such useful tools. The Internet is fucking awesome.
Think of it, just 20 years ago it would be very hard to find some information that is freely available in your home now, never mind how difficult it would have been to find out the number of other users who had viewed that material in a given time period.
NOTE: The word 'useful' was not harmed in the making of this post.
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Good luck guys! Don't forget the crucial "Ballmer Peak" when getting started. http://xkcd.com/323/
I had applied and got some very positive comments on my proposal but none of the project guys would mentor me due to time constraints or lack of knowledge in the area I was coding.
Mentor organizations, in the future, if you have a idea page, make sure there is a mentor behind every item. It was a pain emailing/harassing everyone just to get an answer if they'd mentor me. Not fun when the deadline was a day or so away.
I am glad to hear that there is free swag if I do work on it though, so perhaps I'll give it a go anyways.
import system.cool.Sig;
Which Google service are you referring to? If you're referring to several, pick a few and share your concerns. I've heard so many people rattle on about "Google's immense privacy violations" but I've never heard anyone back it up with facts.
Parent is quite right in my opinion. The worst I've heard of from Google (in terms of privacy - Chinese relations are another issue) was analyzing emails and displaying apropos advertisements. Without logging them. To which I say, if you are embarrassed by computer programs reading your emails, talk to a psychiatrist. ~nog_lorp
Because they are more interested in technological advancement than ideological wanking?