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Zuckerberg Quits Google+ Over Privacy Concerns

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the so-much-irony dept.

ianpm writes "Mark Zuckerberg has decided to leave Google's new social network because he 'doesn't want to be tracked.' In other news, the Internet's irony meter has just exploded. Robert Scoble is now the most followed person on Google+ according to The Inquirer." Most of the article is about the rankings of various G+ users with big followings. I currently have a measly 400 or so. Guess I'll never be as cool as MySpace's Tom.

13 of 284 comments (clear)

  1. Interesting fact by cgeys · · Score: 1, Informative

    Anyone that has signed for Google+ has seen the "i can be tracked all over the internet" checkbox. They have also heard that Google will be removing private profiles by end of the month. They have also seen that every profile will be by default indexed in Google.

    As much as I also hate Zuckerberg, he is spot on. At least with Facebook I have control over what my information is made public. Most of the hate towards Facebook on slashdot seems to come from users with no practical use or just out of touch fear. You CAN change what information is public and what you want to give out. In fact you can make everything private if you want to, and Facebook doesn't allow Google to index that private information.

    When you sign up to Google+, see these very information:
    - Google can use your information to prodive targeted marketing across Google sites and every affiliated site (ie. millions of sites where AdWords is installed)
    - Show photo geo location information in newly uploaded albums and photos.
    - Show this profile publicly (enabled by default)

    1. Re:Interesting fact by jDeepbeep · · Score: 4, Informative

      Show photo geo location information in newly uploaded albums and photos.

      Last I checked, this was optional.

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    2. Re:Interesting fact by calmofthestorm · · Score: 5, Informative

      Addressing your bullets:

      1) Facebook also does this with the facebook ads network (on about 1/3 sites on the net). You can prevent this by disabling "instant personalization"
      2) This is an option during signup unchecked by default (at least when I signed up). You opt in, a word Facebook would do well to learn.
      3) Facebook makes profiles searchable on search engines by default as well. You can disable this.

      So...it has the same privacy violations as facebook...not seeing your point.

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    3. Re:Interesting fact by trum4n · · Score: 4, Informative

      Yea, i just unchecked that "i can be tracked" checkbox. I am an active G+ user, and im NOT on google. Are people really this dumb?

    4. Re:Interesting fact by poetmatt · · Score: 3, Informative

      do you read or just spin things? He is saying that it DOESN'T have the same violations by default.

    5. Re:Interesting fact by Skarecrow77 · · Score: 3, Informative

      Facebook, on the other hand, has privacy controls deeply buried, which often reset themselves, and up to very recently at least (don't use Facebook apps anymore) didn't work properly with Facebook apps. I'll go with G+, TYVM.

      This "feature" drives me nuts. More than once, out of the blue, facebook will start emailing me when someone replies to my status or sends me a friend request, even though I've disable that several times. I then have to go through every god damn setting to make sure they haven't randomly changed something else, like "show my posts to the whole fucking world" despite me setting them to "Friends only" very much on purpose.

      I've had to remove every damn bit of information on myself possible just on the off chance that they screw up again, I don't my "dox" public. Facebook no longer has any idea where I live, have lived, what high school I went to, what college I went to, hell I'm not even sure it knows what year I was born. I had to get rid of all of that a long time ago (although in retrospect, I'm think I would have anyway and am glad I did). Anybody who wants to find me on the network better already know somebody else who is a friend of mine.

      As for apps, I years ago uninstalled all the stupid "what transformer are you?" bullshit and haven't installed a single app since I found out just what the hell they had access to. Frightening.

    6. Re:Interesting fact by thetoadwarrior · · Score: 3, Informative

      I just checked and it's off by default. "Show photo geo location information in newly uploaded albums and photos." is what it says so it may very well show her but that doesn't mean it's public.

  2. Didn't quit by mother_reincarnated · · Score: 5, Informative

    The article (I know, I must leave now) does NOT say he quit G+. It says that he along with the top Mgmt at Google all seem to have opted for tighter privacy controls overnight. The number of friends and followers can no longer be *tracked*.

    1. Re:Didn't quit by kai_hiwatari · · Score: 4, Informative

      Yes, his profile is still visible at https://plus.google.com/104560124403688998123/about . Only the details like number of followers, followings etc has been made private.

  3. Misleading headline? by romcabrera · · Score: 4, Informative

    Nowhere it says Zuckerberg closed his account so that he couldn't be tracked.

  4. Re:Interestingly... by Godai · · Score: 4, Informative

    Not that its an excuse, but 'everything is open from day 0' is how Facebook was until maybe a year ago. So its still ironic :) You'd have thought Google would have learned that little lesson though from just watching the complaints against how Facebook handled privacy. Also, I thought the whole point of Google+ was that they learned not to make everything public, like they did with Buzz. I guess not.

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  5. Re:Interestingly... by Riceballsan · · Score: 3, Informative

    Umm I fail to see the logic in the statements. I opened a Google account yesterday, I shared a picture, it asked me, which circles do you want to share this with, pretty certain on Facebook were I to upload that same picture it would automatically assume everyone on my friends list is free game unless I went much deeper into the settings and tweaked things.

  6. Re:In other news... by LWATCDR · · Score: 4, Informative

    Or that Slashdot slams any other website for putting up titles that are absolute lies just just to get clicks...
    I mean this is really disgusting and Slashdot should be absolutely ashamed!
    FTFA
    "The changes were revealed on the Google+ account belonging to the Social Statistics compiler Boris Veldhuijzen van Zanten. He explained that some Google+ members could no longer be tracked as they had further closed off their accounts on Tuesday. Interesting that Zuckerberg, the man so happy to gather and share so much of everyone else's data on Facebook, is suddenly so protective over his own."

    You have lies, damn lies, statistics and then Slashdot headlines.
    Really guys that is so sad.

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