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Google Agrees To Biennial Privacy Reviews
Blacklaw writes "Google has publicly apologised for the mistakes it made during the launch of its Twitter-like social networking tool Buzz, and claims that it's learned its lesson — and will be undergoing independent privacy reviews to keep it on the straight and narrow."
Good companies like Ubuntu and Microsoft would never do shit like this.
You do know funny mods don't get you karma right? Ubuntu's not a company and Microsoft is hardly a "good" one...
Google has totally been publicly whipped for Buzz and for collecting WiFi data....
And yet the Telecoms are collecting who-even-has-a-guess-how-much data on our data exchanges, tracking our position, hacking our phones to turn them into ease dropping devices, and whatever else. And we know AT&T, Verizon, Sprint, etc. are sharing this data freely without warrants with the government.
And our government keeps extending and extending and extending the extraordinary measures of the Patriot Act without providing any evidence that this is needed!
Big Content is pushing to reduce our privacy further, and insists upon technologies aimed at reducing file sharing, while enabling all sorts of fun Actors like Iran to use the same technologies to cut off their population from the rest of the Internet.
Now I am happy that Google is willing to take input on better privacy. And they NEED to be good about privacy, as more and more of our communications are open to them. But they are not alone. There are other companies that need to step up to the privacy needs of their customers.
Logging the data that was transmitted in the clear, mind you. If you can't be bothered to encrypt your traffic, you're practically shouting for trouble, and should take full responsibility.
Hyperbole: I use it liberally!
Steve? Steve Ballmer, is that you?
Hyperbole: I use it liberally!
Google has totally been publicly whipped for Buzz and for collecting WiFi data....
As is richly deserved for flagrant and willful abuse of privacy. Now please explain to me why these same watchful agencies continue to look the other way and let Microsoft get away with murder in terms of continued market control of PC vendors and such destructive tactics as undermining the ISO standards process. How about fabricating evidence in court, what punishment was there for that?
At least Google is likely to learn and improve its behavior as a result of the punishment. Microsoft never would.
Have you got your LWN subscription yet?
I could excuse some kid goofing around sniffing networks around but we're talking about a multinational corporation driving around sniffing whatever they can. Their staff should know better, their law department should know better and they should already have accountability procedures in place to prevent this kind of thing from happening. It's a lack of professional ethics of a level normally reserved for banks and government agencies. What's next, driving around recording all conversations within earshot because people can always talk in code if they want privacy ?
If all else fails, immortality can always be assured by spectacular error.
How many companies show you pages like this or this? Facebook is even worse by not letting you control what information they give out to their "partners".
Their staff should know better, their law department should know better and they should already have accountability procedures in place to prevent this kind of thing from happening.
You actually want the soul-crushing bureaucracy that everyone hates about large organizations? Where every time you want to write three lines of code you have to get it cleared with the full board of directors and six battalions of lawyers?
Give me a break. If we want privacy then we need systems that protect privacy inherently, not witch hunts against whoever manages to remind us how poorly designed existing systems are.