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Google's Real Name Policy, Why You Are the Product

bs0d3 writes "Google tells their investors: 'Who are our customers? Our customers are over one million advertisers, from small businesses targeting local customers to many of the world's largest global enterprises, who use Google AdWords to reach millions of users around the world.' Site users don't seem to understand. It's not that it's free. It's that you are the product being sold. ThomasMonopoly points out, 'I'm unaware of any company that feels responsible to their product. And if I'm to understand that they're responsible to their customers, the advertisers, I don't want "the world's largest global enterprises" dictating my identity or choosing who in Syria is granted a voice on the world stage.'"

263 of 374 comments (clear)

  1. Nothing new by Mensa+Babe · · Score: 5, Informative

    Is this really new to anyone who hasn't lived in the cage for the last 80 years? This business model is a de facto standard since Phil Taylor Farnsworth invented the tele. Nothing to be upset about. You don't have to use Google if you don't want to. Besides, I'd rather be a product of a company that does no evil than a client of some other companies that do.

    --
    Karma: Positive (probably because of superiour intellect)
    1. Re:Nothing new by lm2s · · Score: 2

      Actually, from my (maybe small) experience, there are a lot of people who are still to realize this.

    2. Re:Nothing new by n5vb · · Score: 4, Insightful

      The fact that Google is providing a free service has nothing to do with the fact that it's demanding control over how people identify themselves.

      No, you don't have to use G+ if you don't want to. But if they want to be the only channel you can use, then they have to accept that they are at least a de facto common carrier by doing so, whether or not they're considered one in a de jure sense, and by acting like a common carrier, they have certain responsibilities to the people who use G+ to communicate .. and that includes allowing people to identify themselves using their chosen expressions of identity.

      No, the law almost certainly doesn't say that -- because the law doesn't yet address situations like this as far as I know -- but it's consistent with how humans understand communication. And the trend in civil liberties is to place fewer restrictions on expressions of identity, not greater ones. One hopes the law catches up to this understanding soon, but that's the reality. We have the right to determine how people know us, and we have the right not to have that dictated to us based on an arbitrary legal distinction..

    3. Re:Nothing new by Trepidity · · Score: 5, Informative

      Yeah, this analysis goes back to analysis of TV, and is around 40 years old at least. A 1973 broadcast by artist Richard Serra, entitled "Television Delivers People" is one early use of the concept:

      The product of television, commercial television, is the audience.

      Television delivers people to an advertiser.

      [...]

      You are the product of T.V.

      You are delivered to the advertiser who is the customer.

      He consumes you.

      The viewer is not responsible for programming--

      You are the end product.

      (For those interested, he discusses the concept and the reaction it got when it was actually broadcast on TV in this book.)

    4. Re:Nothing new by Seumas · · Score: 5, Interesting

      My thoughts, exactly. If you listen to radio, you are not the customer -- you're the product. If you watch television, you are not the customer -- you are the product. If you read most magazines (even if you pay for them), you are not a customer -- you're the product. When it comes to media of all kinds, you are the product far more often than you are the client.

      That doesn't mean that privacy shouldn't still be valued, even in free services. It should be. But people need to approach it from the mindset that they are trading something valuable (their eyeballs and their personal data) in exchange. It'd be great if there was an alternative to all of these things, for those who would rather pay a few bucks than give up their "soul", so to speak. Unfortunately, the masses do not want to pay for anything, anywhere and catering to the niche who does is usually not so profitable, as a result.

      As for their naming policy? It's entirely within their right to determine how they intend to curate the culture of their service and if it means there will be less fake names posting ridiculous crap on the service than are doing so on competing services and it will somehow elevate the general level of discourse compared to the competing services, then have at it. (This is not to endorse required identification for using the internet - only for using a particular service that is offered on a website to people on the internet.)

      Of course, as far as a company doing no evil . . . I'm not aware of such a thing.

    5. Re:Nothing new by webmistressrachel · · Score: 5, Informative

      John Logie Baird was the first to implement television, stop re-writing history you goddamn Yanks!

      --
      This tagline was transcoded to result in at least one smirk. If you experience failure to smirk, please consult your Gen
    6. Re:Nothing new by AJZ · · Score: 2

      Ditto to what Trepidity and Seumas said. But I have questions. The article has a quote: "If you’re not paying for it, then you’re the product being sold." So: I just installed OpenBSD on some hardware I had lying around. You see where this is going.

      I didn't buy the CD set (yet). It's about an 80% chance that I will now, and 99% if I turn the box into a packet filter as planned.

      Questions:
      (1) In what way am I the product being sold (by OpenBSD)?
      (2) If I'm not "the product", then how can I tell? I'm dissatisfied with any answer that says it's obvious on its face: "I just know in my gut that Google has the capacity for evil, yet OpenBSD is good."
      (3) If I am "the product", then by what mechanism am I suddenly relieved of that status when I buy the CD sets?

      I'm not trying to argue that OpenBSD is good therefore Google is good, nor that Google is bad therefore OpenBSD is bad. I genuinely can't reconcile my experience with the quote, so I think the quote is an overgeneralization. Both Google and OpenBSD may or may not be selling me as a product, the fact that they're free tells me very little, and I have to research them myself.

    7. Re:Nothing new by Paradise+Pete · · Score: 1

      You're right, the statement is too simple. Free is not so important. If they make money because you use it, and that money does not come from you, then you are the product.

    8. Re:Nothing new by sphealey · · Score: 1

      > You don't have to use Google if you don't want to.

      That's really not true. It is becoming essentially impossible to get a job, deal with a hospital, open a utility account, enroll in a school, etc etc etc without having a solid accessible e-mail address and using a variety of web services. You might be able to escape one of the big providers (e.g. Google) but you essentially cannot function in a modern society and escape them all.

      sPh

    9. Re:Nothing new by Seumas · · Score: 1

      An accurate statement would be "In most forms of media and entertainment, you are the product; not the client". Free isn't necessarily the relevant factor, here. You pay for cable television, yet you are given ads. The customers are the advertisers and you are the product. The network only needs to produce programs good enough and cheap enough to get your eyeballs, to in turn sell as a package deal to the advertisers.

      A fur trapper is the radio station, television network, newspaper publication, magazine publication or what have you. The advertiser is the customer that wants to buy a pelt. The content is the bait in the trap to lure the furry animal. You are the furry animal.

    10. Re:Nothing new by unencode200x · · Score: 1

      Before we all blindly agree that Google does no evil, let's give it another decade or two and let history be the judge. In the post that you refer to (a great read, btw), it wasn't clear that IBM's actions would turn out to be very evil until years later. I doubt Watson knew at the time what he was getting into. However, as soon as it started to become clear IBM should have ran screaming from it and they didn't.

      To me, this sounds similar to recent concerns over our ISPs (including Google) and the NSA, China, and more. I have to run to the airport for a few hours or I'd post more about it. Here's a great talk though about how some of these data are used by our own law enforcement in the US, not just the NSA, but your local and state authorities:
      DEFCON 18: Your ISP and the Government: Best Friends Forever 1/3

      --

      Chance favors the prepared mind.
      Perfect is the enemy of good.
    11. Re:Nothing new by Rob+Y. · · Score: 2

      As a matter of fact, Google has managed to find a way to build a profitable ad-funded business in a way that is about as unobtrusive as we've seen. I'm a somewhat reluctant user of Adblock Plus - I hate the manipulativeness of most advertising, but understand that it funds most of the media I consume. But in the case of Google, I actually find their search ads useful. They are easy to ignore, but when I'm actually searching to buy something, they're right there (along with links to alternatives if I don't believe the hype).

      I suspect the reason this all works is the fact that Google can charge enough for their targeting abilities (and their ability to attract an ad-resistant type like me) that they don't need to beat you over the head with traditional "you're a worthless piece of shit if you don't buy this fabulous product" advertising. And because this all works, and makes oodles for Google, I have no reason to suspect they're using my info for any other, more nefarious, purposes. They don't need to.

      Of course, search ads are only part of Google's business, and Doubleclick is much more conventionally hideous. But that's what I use Adblock Plus for...

      --
      Posted from my Android phone. Oh, I can change this? There, that's better...
    12. Re:Nothing new by Oligonicella · · Score: 1

      Where do people come up with this crap? I own my own damned email server, have for almost ten years. Before that, I had one from my local internet provider.

      Each and every thing you mentioned requires a browser/mail app and a connection, nothing more.

      Not one single "big provider" is necessary for you to function at any level on the internet (not including purposefully utilizing their products).

      By the way, every one of your examples can be done by mail or walk-in as well. What you wrote is simply not true.

    13. Re:Nothing new by Oligonicella · · Score: 1

      What is this language english to which you refer? The oneI speak is called English.

    14. Re:Nothing new by LordLimecat · · Score: 1

      My thoughts, exactly. If you listen to radio, you are not the customer

      Its not that simple. Or have you not heard of member supported stations?

      Or the fact that in one regard, ALL stations are member supported?

    15. Re:Nothing new by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Indeed, and moreover the statement in the summary - that companies generally don't worry about their products - only really applies to inanimate products. Pet shops care for their "products" (or at least the good ones do), and we as products are in the unique position of determining which company gets to "sell" us. By all means treat us like crap if you want to quickly have no product to sell. This whole thing reads like someone who only just spotted the "people as products" paradigm and is now trying to open everyone's eyes when most people are perfectly aware and even reasonably happy with the situation.

    16. Re:Nothing new by scarboni888 · · Score: 1

      RE: "It'd be great if there was an alternative to all of these things, for those who would rather pay a few bucks than give up their "soul", so to speak. Unfortunately, the masses do not want to pay for anything, anywhere and catering to the niche who does is usually not so profitable, as a result."

      How could you write that immediately after acknowledging that the masses are paying for the privilege of being sold as a product vise a vis your statement about paying for magazines?

      And what about the cable & satellite television industries? The 'masses' fork over $40-$50 per month per household for the privilege of having their eyeballs sold off to advertisers? I find your statement, in the face of these examples and countless others (paying obnoxious prices for the privilege of wearing clothing with brand names splashed all over them, for example) to be patently absurd.

      The fact of the matter is that the 'masses' are actually constantly paying for the privilege of giving up their soul so I'm not exactly sure where you get off with such a statement.

    17. Re:Nothing new by delinear · · Score: 1

      There are still plenty of parallels. The government expects the BBC to produce shows that attract viewers (even where it's meeting the remit to niche audiences it still needs to attract those audiences). Ultimately that means the product is the purchaser, since we pay for the service via taxation, but the BBC is still responsible for delivering a certain number of eyeballs in return for its funding.

    18. Re:Nothing new by ObsessiveMathsFreak · · Score: 1

      You don't have to use Google if you don't want to.

      Yes, but since that more or less equates to not using the internet at all, it rather misses the point. And the point is becoming a lot bigger than you think with each passing day.

      Once solution to this growing Google problem would be the nationalisation/public-domaining of their code. algorithms, and or infrastructure. Since these now comprise a vital and increasingly central part of national if not international commerce, government, and society, it is somewhat irresponsible to leave them entirely in private hands.

      If Google really does decide to become evil in a big way, or simply goes belly up, the splash may literally be big enough to sink a small state or two. I dare say the company is reaching the "too big to fail" status of the banks, and as such, it is probably time to look into nationalisation or quasi-nationalisation options now rather than when it all hits the fan.

      --
      May the Maths Be with you!
    19. Re:Nothing new by advocate_one · · Score: 5, Interesting

      As for their naming policy? It's entirely within their right to determine how they intend to curate the culture of their service and if it means there will be less fake names posting ridiculous crap on the service than are doing so on competing services and it will somehow elevate the general level of discourse compared to the competing services, then have at it. (This is not to endorse required identification for using the internet - only for using a particular service that is offered on a website to people on the internet.)

      They're going to get run out of Germany on a rail if they keep pushing it... the Germans have very long memories of what can be done when your ID can be linked to your actions or what your religion is... Not only Nazi Germany using IBM provided technology to identify Jews and help round them up, But the East German Stasi with their requirements that all typewriters had to be registered with the authorities and samples of text provided... so they could try and track Samizdat newsletters to typists.

      What seems a reasonable request for identification now, can very quickly become a nightmare if the government is taken over by an extreme right or left wing ideology who wish to start rounding up all dissidents

      --
      Donald 'Duck' Dunn: We had a band powerful enough to turn goat piss into gasoline.
    20. Re:Nothing new by realityimpaired · · Score: 2

      GP is probably just trying to demonstrate their superior grasp of the English language by attempting to speak the Queen's English, but is unaware that the extra U between O and R only appears where the Queen deems fit, and not everywhere in the colourful language that is English.

      (semi-facetious... it's not so much where the Queen sees fit, but rather where the myriad grammatical and spelling rules that form the completely messed up jumble that is our language... Most languages borrow from other languages, English follows them down dark alleys, clubs them over the head, and rifles through their pockets looking for loose grammar)

    21. Re:Nothing new by delinear · · Score: 1

      I pay about a nominal annual amount and receive not only my own domain name with unlimited email addresses, but hosting thrown in as well. I think the package I'm on works out to about £35 per annum. If you wanted just a domain and email I'm sure it's even cheaper. There's absolutely no reason not to be able to obtain an email address for job searches etc without having to rely on some global corporation (sure, I'm with a big hosting company but if I decide I don't like them I can take my domain with me and leave), and if you go with a cheap hosting package it's arguably going to improve your chances of finding a job as you can stick a brief resumé on the domain and stand out a little from all the @gmail addresses (not that I have anything against gmail - I have an account with them and also a long-standing hotmail account that I keep around and use for buying stuff to divert spam away from my "work" email). There is no service any of these companies provide free that I can't get free or for a small fee elsewhere.

    22. Re:Nothing new by Conspiracy_Of_Doves · · Score: 1

      One thing is new. The fact that they are being open and honest about it.

    23. Re:Nothing new by hedwards · · Score: 1

      Which is dumb, because despite what the tin foil hat wearers say, the user isn't the product, the user's attention is the product they're selling. Which is what makes a lot of this so boggling to me. non-targeted ads that are viewed are going to be worth much more than targeted ads that miss most of the eyeballs due to being blocked for invading people's privacy or spying on people that haven't consented to it.

      Granted Google's services do have ToS, but most sites don't.

    24. Re:Nothing new by hedwards · · Score: 1

      That's sort of the thing. A lot of people seem to assume that the users are the product when there are other reasonably possibilities. Probably the most likely one is that services like gmail and google voice are just sources of real world data that they can work on better sifting through. Allowing them to better optimize their algorithms. Some of the times when they get it wrong, the person will grant access to the data to figure out what the problem is and improve.

      The whole notion that free isn't ever free or that there's only one motivation is the sort of black and white thinking that leads to all sorts of trouble in the long run.

    25. Re:Nothing new by Runaway1956 · · Score: 1

      Synonyms for end product: feces

      --
      "Windows is like the faint smell of piss in a subway: it's there, and there's nothing you can do about it." - Charlie Br
    26. Re:Nothing new by Seumas · · Score: 1

      Perhaps my comment wasn't as clear as I thought it was. I was referring to services where you were actually the client, exclusively, and not a product. Where you pay for the service and are not having advertising shoved in your face or personal details traded behind the scenes to facilitate affordability of the service for you. Current examples being things like books, audiobooks, music, and the movies which aren't just vessels for product placement.

      Imagine a social networking service, for example, that wasn't free. You paid a few bucks, but in turn data was not gathered about you and traded behind the scenes and nobody vomited ads all over the interface. Unfortunately, nobody would be willing to pay for that, so it'd be a pretty unsocial social network.

    27. Re:Nothing new by Seumas · · Score: 1

      While I'm one of those constantly aware of and concerned with privacy and government abuses, I don't think that it is enough justification for a company to say "yeah, that service we wanted to provide? Forget it, we're going to just open up the floodgates". In this instance, it seems to be one of the points they're using to distinguish themselves among other social networks. Would you not apply the same logic and argument to, say, LinkedIn? Would you then demand that LinkedIn should not have user names and resume information, because "it could be used by the pending Mecha Hitler to make you disappear to prevent your dissenting opinions from impacting the coming fascist uprising"?

      I find the idea of giving my information to a mega corporation that in turn has a lot of dealings with government agencies where I am the ultimate product they're trading with to be very skitchy, but the easy solution is to simply not participate in it. I would certainly have a different opinion if someone introduced legislation to "make that nifty identity service Google+ has been pushing for the last five years a new de-jure service for identifying all internet users, if you want to be allowed to connect to the intarwebs".

    28. Re:Nothing new by PCM2 · · Score: 3, Insightful

      My thoughts, exactly. If you listen to radio, you are not the customer -- you're the product. If you watch television, you are not the customer -- you are the product. If you read most magazines (even if you pay for them), you are not a customer -- you're the product. When it comes to media of all kinds, you are the product far more often than you are the client.

      But it's not as simple as that, because nobody is a mindless drone who will watch, listen to, or read anything you put in front of them. A magazine isn't 100 percent advertising (in fact that would be illegal by postal regulations in the U.S.) Advertisers wouldn't try to advertise on a radio station that played nothing but a 50Hz tone all day. And in fact, advertisers pick and choose which markets they target based on the content of that media; you might get a lot of drug companies advertising during 30 Rock, for example, but fewer during House. It's really clever and postmodern to say "the viewer is the product," but it's also not really true. Advertisers are paying for access to specific content, which they think appeals to a market that interests them. They want to reach the customers, true, but in order to do so they rely on the content -- so the content is the product. Or why else do you think media companies spend so much money to produce content -- as a loss leader?

      --
      Breakfast served all day!
    29. Re:Nothing new by mjtaylor24601 · · Score: 1

      But if they want to be the only channel you can use, then they have to accept that they are at least a de facto common carrier

      Whoa, who said Google wants to be the only option you can use?

      Google's stated philosophy has always been about promoting a competitive marketplace

      When it comes to search, competition is always just a click away. We innovate rapidly to make sure people keep choosing Google, and in the end that's great for consumers.

      Whether you believe them or not is up to you, but they certainly at least try to make it easy to swtich to a competitor.

      that includes allowing people to identify themselves using their chosen expressions of identity...it's consistent with how humans understand communication...And the trend in civil liberties is to place fewer restrictions on expressions of identity, not greater ones

      which is why everyone is able to rent a car, fly on a plane, book a hotel, or open a bank account using a fake ID? Don't get me wrong, I don't personally agree with the G+ "Real Names" policy. But there are lots of situations where people (rightly or wrongly) accept identity verification as a cost of doing business.

      --
      I wish I were as sure of anything as some people are of everything
    30. Re:Nothing new by gsslay · · Score: 1

      Last time I watched TV or read a magazine I did not have to tell either anything about myself. It did not record anything about me. The company behind both media have no idea of my existence, never mind my opinions, preferences, social habits or appearance. All they know is that someone is out there.

      This is the radical difference between the old and new "packaging" of customers. You now come individually wrapped. And the packaging and labelling is not for your convenience. In fact it could be distinctly inconvenient to you if your label suggests you are not the kind of product that advertisers wish. Targeted advertising is just as effective a way to exclude.

    31. Re:Nothing new by RobertLTux · · Score: 2

      An example of this is Reverend Fred McFeely Rogers i would bet that the number of folks that know him BY THIS NAME are a lot fewer than the ones that would recognize MR Rogers.

      If 95% of persons polled do not know you by your given name then G+ should allow you to ID as the nickname you are known by.

      --
      Any person using FTFY or editing my postings agrees to a US$50.00 charge
    32. Re:Nothing new by Raenex · · Score: 1

      Besides, I'd rather be a product of a company that does no evil

      You still buy their slogan? I believe at one point they tried to live by this standard, but they sold out to advertisers and privacy invasion a long time ago.

      They've also acted like the typical, unethical corporations in other areas, such as negotiating government deals under non-disclosure agreements, banning people from using "Google" in their AdWords but allowing third-party trademarks for everybody else, trying to appropriate the copyright of authors who don't opt-out with their book scanning, and censoring search results for China (which they then decided years later was a bad idea after China hacked them).

      You'll find apologists who defend them for all these issues, but many of those same people wouldn't be so apologetic if it was Microsoft, especially if they claimed they were a "do no evil" company.

    33. Re:Nothing new by dcollins · · Score: 1

      "Is this really new to anyone who hasn't lived in the cage for the last 80 years?"

      Definitely. Among the many things the majority of people do not know:
      - Exactly how their personal information is being used online.
      - How to program a computer.
      - How to do basic algebra.
      Etc.

      Mind-blowing, I know.

      --
      We know where leadership by an anti-intellectual "strongman" who scapegoats minorities and likes boisterous rallies goes
    34. Re:Nothing new by Eunuchswear · · Score: 1

      My thoughts, exactly. If you listen to radio, you are not the customer -- you're the product. If you watch television, you are not the customer -- you are the product.

      Because the BBC doesn't exist.

      --
      Watch this Heartland Institute video
    35. Re:Nothing new by Zamphatta · · Score: 1

      'cause they only believe what they're taught in school and that nothing has changed since then.

    36. Re:Nothing new by Reziac · · Score: 1

      Side thought... I'm wondering what a little beeswax rubbed on the keys would do for those typewriter samples.

      Of course, now we have printers that put an ID on every sheet produced...

      As to the sale of my eyeballs, I don't really care when it's my anonymous eyeballs as part of the general mass of product. However, I *do* care when it's Reziac's eyeballs being singled out, by name and whatever else personal identification... Perhaps for an innocuous purpose today, but as the Stasi did indeed demonstrate, for what purpose tomorrow??

      --
      ~REZ~ #43301. Who'd fake being me anyway?
    37. Re:Nothing new by bonch · · Score: 1

      Is this really new to anyone who hasn't lived in the cage for the last 80 years?

      It's probably new to a lot of people on Slashdot since they've been conditioned for the last 10 years to believe that Google is a benevolent force trying to better mankind through technology rather than a company selling personal data and advertising space.

    38. Re:Nothing new by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Thanks for the video link. I transcribed it quickly for the benefit of others:

      Television Delivers People
      Richard Serra
      Carlota Fay Schoolman
      1973

      The Product of Television, Commercial Television, is the Audience.

      Television delivers people to an advertiser.

      There is no such thing as mass media in the United States except for television.

      Mass media means that a medium can deliver masses of people.

      Commercial television delivers 20 million people a minute.

      in commercial broadcasting the viewer pays for the privilege of having himself sold.

      It is the consumer who is consumed.

      You are the product of t.v.

      you are delivered to the advertiser who is the customer.

      He consumes you.

      The viewer is not responsible for programming------

      You are the end product.

      You are the end product delivered en masse to the advertiser.

      You are the product of t.v.

      Everything on television is educational in the sense that it teaches something.

      What television teaches through commercialism is materialistic consumption.

      The NEW MEDIA STATE is predicated on media control.

      Media asserts an influence over an entire cultural spectrum, without effort or qualification.

      We are persuaded daily by a corporate oligarchy.

      Corporate control advocates materialistic propaganda.

      Television establishments are committed to economic survival: .

      Propaganda for Profit.

      Television is the prime instrument for the management of consumer demands.

      Commercial television defines the world in specific terms.

      Commercial television defines the world so as not to threaten the status quo.

      Television defines the world so as not to threaten you.

      Soft propaganda is considered entertainment.

      POPULAR ENTERTAINMENT IS BASICALLY PROPAGANDA FOR THE STATUS QUO.

      POPULAR ENTERTAINMENT IS BASICALLY PROPAGANDA FOR THE STATUS QUO.

      control over broadcasting is an exercise in controlling society.

      Seventy-give percent of news is received by you from television.

      What goes on over the news is what you know.

      It is the basis by which you make judgements, by which you think.

      You are the controlled product of news programming.

      Television programming dominates the exposure of ideas and information.

      There is inherent conflict between:

      COMMERCE,

      INFORMATION,

      ENTERTAINMENT.

      There is a mass media compulsion to reinforce the status quo. To reinforce the distribution of power.

      The NEW MEDIA STATE is dependent on television for its existence.

      The NEW MEDIA STATE is dependent on propaganda for its existence.

      Corporations that own networks control them.

      CORPORATIONS ARE NOT RESPONSIBLE.

      CORPORATIONS ARE NO RESPONSIBLE TO GOVERNMENT.

      CORPORATIONS ARE NOT RESPONSIBLE TO THEIR EMPLOYEES.

      CORPORATIONS ARE NOT RESPONSIBLE TO THEIR SHAREHOLDERS.

      Shareholders do not organize and enforce their will. Shareholders buy stock in companies and don't even know what the companies do.

      Corporations mitigate information.

      Every dollar spent by the television industry in physical equipment needed to send a message to you is matched by forty dollars spent by you to receive it.

      You pay the money to allow someone else to make the choice.

      You are consumed.

      You are the product of television.

      Television delivers people.

      "TELEVISION DELIVERS PEOPLE"

      Richard Serra

      Carlotta Fay Schoolman

      COPYRIGHT 3/30/1973

    39. Re:Nothing new by martin-boundary · · Score: 1

      Is this really new to anyone who hasn't lived in the cage for the last 80 years?

      Of course it's new. It's new every year to anyone who finishes high school in that year, IYKWIM.

    40. Re:Nothing new by martin-boundary · · Score: 2

      There's a big difference betweem MUST and SHOULD. It's not evil to allow users to post under their real identities if they so wish, but it is evil to require real identities as a condition of service, especially when there are no guarantees about what this information will be used for or to whom it will be sold over time.

    41. Re:Nothing new by execthis · · Score: 1

      I think your argument confounds the issue. The main problem with the fake Syrian blogger was the fact that people were collaborating with him/her to high degrees WITHOUT EVER having even spoken with him/her via telephone, much less via video chat or live meeting. The naivete of that is shocking.

      Verification and trust go together, along with a clear understanding of at what level certain thresholds are being crossed which require higher levels of verification. BS in a chat room is one thing. But when someone starts working on a collaborative web project spanning several years, verification of identity becomes essential.

    42. Re:Nothing new by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      It's really clever and postmodern to say "the viewer is the product," but it's also not really true. Advertisers are paying for access to specific content, which they think appeals to a market that interests them. They want to reach the customers, true, but in order to do so they rely on the content -- so the content is the product.

      You seem to be having trouble with the non-linear nature of this relationship, the initial production of content is paid for by advertisers over time during the run and advertisers advertise because the content interests their consumer base. If no advertiser wanted to buy ad space during some show then that show wouldn't be produced in the first place or, else, would be cancelled during the first season (lack of sales to customers (advertisers), product (viewers of show) is not interesting enough, product line (show which attracts viewers) is discontinued). This is how shows which seem to have a strong cult following can still end up cancelled, nobody cares about the viewers of the show if they aren't interesting enough to sell to advertisers so the content is discontinued in favor of something more mainstream.

      In the case of movies, the content is sold directly at the box office or as DVDs, this resembles a more normal relationship where the viewer IS actually the customer. These two models complement each other disturbingly well since the content is produced for the purpose of being sold on its own merits but is then recycled over and over for advertiser derived revenue gravy.

      Or why else do you think media companies spend so much money to produce content -- as a loss leader?

      They are always trying to find ways to cut costs; have you heard of "reality television"? Same result (viewers to sell to advertisers) with much less upfront production investment.

    43. Re:Nothing new by thsths · · Score: 1

      Absolutely - a whole generation in the 70s has based their ideology partly on the fact that "TV sell people". You can love it, you can hate it, but if you pretend that this is "news", you are an idiot.

    44. Re:Nothing new by Snaller · · Score: 1

      "You don't have to use Google if you don't want to."

      You don't have to own slaves if you don't want to.

      Oh wait...

      --
      If Google really cared they would fix Android Chrome to reflow text, instead of discriminating
    45. Re:Nothing new by EnempE · · Score: 1

      At least in Soviet Russia tv only watches you.

    46. Re:Nothing new by EnempE · · Score: 1

      Actually ( and not targeting this at you Seumas, just seemed like a good point to insert this comment),

      Another way of looking at it is:

      You are the consumer.
      The Webpage is the product.
      The advertiser is the customer.

      Google doesn't sell access to you, they sell a delivery service via the website. If an advertiser contracted google for advertising out of a pool of 'x' number of consumers, but when the advertisement went live there were only x-1 consumers available to the site. They wouldn't then go around to that guy's house and give him a leaflet advertising the product.

      From google's perspective they are providing a service to their consumers as well, by delivering them only advertising that is interesting to them and saving their eyeballs from reading advertising that is of no potential interest to them.

      Google's motto is don't be evil ... one can do evil without being evil.

    47. Re:Nothing new by tehcyder · · Score: 1

      Besides, I'd rather be a product of a company that does no evil than a client of some other companies [slashdot.org] that do.

      So, because Google have a cool catchphrase, everything they do's OK? Your naivety is breathtaking.

      --
      To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it
    48. Re:Nothing new by tehcyder · · Score: 1

      My thoughts, exactly. If you listen to radio, you are not the customer -- you're the product. If you watch television, you are not the customer -- you are the product.

      Because the BBC doesn't exist.

      I think most slashdotters prefer rampant consumer capitalism to what is perceived as evil state controlled/socialist media. Then they complain about advertisements and install adblocker on their browsers.

      --
      To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it
    49. Re:Nothing new by Eunuchswear · · Score: 1

      My thoughts, exactly. If you listen to radio, you are not the customer -- you're the product. If you watch television, you are not the customer -- you are the product.

      Because the BBC doesn't exist.

      I think most slashdotters prefer rampant consumer capitalism to what is perceived as evil state controlled/socialist media. Then they complain about advertisements and install adblocker on their browsers.

      But the point about the (correct) observation about Google and commercial TV is that it isn't "consumer capitalism". The slashdot reader is the product being sold.

      Should slaves stand up for the free market in slaves?

      --
      Watch this Heartland Institute video
    50. Re:Nothing new by tehcyder · · Score: 1

      > You don't have to use Google if you don't want to.

      That's really not true. It is becoming essentially impossible to get a job, deal with a hospital, open a utility account, enroll in a school, etc etc etc without having a solid accessible e-mail address and using a variety of web services. You might be able to escape one of the big providers (e.g. Google) but you essentially cannot function in a modern society and escape them all.

      sPh

      That is probably the most retarded thing I have read this week. People were using email decades before Google even existed, and in any case none of your examples require access to email anyway, nor a "variety of web services" whatever that means.

      --
      To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it
    51. Re:Nothing new by AmiMoJo · · Score: 1

      and that includes allowing people to identify themselves using their chosen expressions of identity

      In the EU someone could challenge them over that on Human Rights grounds. For example a pre-op transsexual might want to be known by a particular name that isn't their legal or birth name. The European Convention on Human Rights guarantees them the right to do that and disallowing it would be discrimination on the grounds of gender and probably violate the right to a private life by forcibly "outing" them if they wished to participate.

      Even employers have to respect their employee's right to determine their own gender and by extension their name. Google might be able to argue that since they do not provide something that is fundamental to a person's quality of life (like employment is) that they don't have to, but I seriously doubt they would get very far.

      --
      const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
      SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
    52. Re:Nothing new by AmiMoJo · · Score: 1

      I'd love to know what I would be worth to them in terms of ad revenue if I didn't run AdBlock. I already pay $5/year for 20GB of extra storage on my account (easy off-site backups), and wouldn't mind paying another $5/year to turn off all the ads and tracking.

      --
      const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
      SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
    53. Re:Nothing new by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      It's really clever and postmodern to say "the viewer is the product," but it's also not really true

      Want to know the real truth? Parent has no clue what the word "postmodern" actually means.

      Words: they have meanings. Don't string them together randomly.

    54. Re:Nothing new by BitZtream · · Score: 1

      Please learn what a nickname is.

      --
      Persistent Volume manager for Kubernetes - https://github.com/dwimsey/openshift-pvmanager
    55. Re:Nothing new by BitZtream · · Score: 1

      Lets also not forget that slashdot.org ... makes its money ... by selling advertisements to its users.

      The poster himself is too ignorant and angsty to realize that he's posting a comment about being the product on a website that he is in fact the product for.

      --
      Persistent Volume manager for Kubernetes - https://github.com/dwimsey/openshift-pvmanager
    56. Re:Nothing new by PCM2 · · Score: 1

      A mining company might spend money on drills, but they're doing it as a means to an end -- it doesn't mean drills are their product. ...
      A TV company may spend money on varieties of programming but it's purely a means to an end. It's the capital expenditure that helps them acquire their product so they can sell it.

      OK, look at it this way: Diamonds come out of the ground. Like viewer eyeballs -- they're a natural resource. They just exist, the only thing that remains is to go get them. But raw diamonds ain't shit. Diamonds don't get sold for thousands of dollars until they're cut, polished, and set into jewelery. That's what content does to eyeballs. Some people buy raw, uncut diamonds. Some people buy raw, uncut eyeballs -- they don't give a shit, we call them spammers. Real advertisers want cut, polished eyeballs -- they want the ones that have been filtered through content. Maybe the eyeballs are the "product," in a sense, but only in the sense that carbon can become a diamond. The process that creates the diamond out of the carbon is the content. Without the content, all an advertiser is doing is tagging flyers on telephone poles and hoping for the best. Advertisers want names, they want people to see their ads? Fine, here's the phone book. Nuh-uh. It doesn't work that way. A media company's product is its content, because content is what turns raw eyeballs into cut, polished eyeballs.

      --
      Breakfast served all day!
    57. Re:Nothing new by PCM2 · · Score: 1

      How about this Merriam-Webster definition, smart guy?

      of, relating to, or being a theory that involves a radical reappraisal of modern assumptions about culture, identity, history, or language

      Read a fucking book.

      --
      Breakfast served all day!
    58. Re:Nothing new by n5vb · · Score: 1

      Facts? I'm not making a legal argument .. as I said, the law may very well disagree with me. My argument is purely philosophical.

      How I identify myself has an effect on how people perceive me, and can, if I identify myself in certain ways, can cloud their opinion of what I'm trying to communicate with their own prejudices about me and whatever stereotype that name represents to them. It could also tip off a would-be stalker to the fact that I am the one communicating. Should I be restricted to my birth identity everywhere I go, just to make it more convenient to follow me? (Or compile a dossier on me if my opinions happen to be inconvenient to the administration in power?) Should I merely be restricted to my current legal identity and be forced to change my name legally any time who I am becomes an obstacle to people understanding what I choose to say?

      I disagree with the opinion that anonymity only promotes uncivil discourse, and with the opinion that the only uncivil discourse is from people who post anonymously. I see very little distinction between that and "nothing to hide, nothing to fear". Anonymity can, and often does, facilitate civil discourse, and it allows exploring communication that might otherwise be off limits to someone posting in their own "public" identity.

      So whether or not it's a *fact* that have the right to determine how people know us, and we have the right not to have that dictated to us based on an arbitrary legal distinction, I still believe it's true. I may be wrong. For all our sakes, I hope not.

  2. Marketing 123 by ge7 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    It shows that the "omg free stuff" marketing works to people. People also go crazy about coupons and all kinds of "give us permission to spa.. mail you and get these cool things" offers and everything else. Even many slashdotters go to great lengths to defense Google just because their stuff is free (and you don't need to use it if you don't want to!!). At the same time they're ranting how government and companies are violating their privacy, when they're themselves whoring it out.

    1. Re:Marketing 123 by lm2s · · Score: 1

      Even many slashdotters go to great lengths to defense Google just because their stuff is free (and you don't need to use it if you don't want to!!). At the same time they're ranting how government and companies are violating their privacy, when they're themselves whoring it out.

      Exactly.

    2. Re:Marketing 123 by somersault · · Score: 2

      It's not just because Google's stuff is free, so much as that it's free and works well.

      I wouldn't use Windows on a home computer even if it was free. I do have a Hotmail account, but it's no longer my primary address.

      --
      which is totally what she said
    3. Re:Marketing 123 by DaleGlass · · Score: 1

      Opinions about Google are starting to change.

      On my part, I was never particularly crazy about them. I use the search engine, have an unused gmail account and that's about it. Right now I'm seriously starting to ponder how to avoid them as much as possible.

      Unfortunately they have the one more or less decent phone OS left, so now I'm pondering if it's possible to get an Android phone devoid of anything Google related.

    4. Re:Marketing 123 by GIL_Dude · · Score: 1

      I doubt that it really gets returned to sender though (since it is not first or second class mail). What is more fun (but more time consuming) is to take any two pieces of junk mail, open them both and place the adverts from one (and even folded outer envelope) into the "business reply mail" inserts of the other and then send them back. The only thing you remove is anything personally identifiable - names, addresses, bar codes and the like. So, for example, Capital One gets the adverts from some mortgage company and some mortgage company gets the adverts from Capital One. Imagine what would happen if we could get just 30% of people receiving junk mail to do that! (On the very rare day that we get just one piece of junk mail with a business reply envelope they just get back things from the trash like a Kleenex or possibly a piece of "postcard style" junk mail if it has a label that can be peeled off.)

      This is much more satisfying because you know they actually DO receive this and must pay the (admittedly low) rate for the business reply mail. Also it will be kicked out by their automated processing equipment and need to be viewed by a human.

    5. Re:Marketing 123 by rubycodez · · Score: 1

      what, you don't put in a half-pound piece of scrap too? you're doing it half-assed.

    6. Re:Marketing 123 by Tharsman · · Score: 1

      Heck complaining about government violating privacy is to be expected! The true hypocrisy (or sheephood) comes when they call out Facebook for privacy violations while defending Google at every corner.

    7. Re:Marketing 123 by Tharsman · · Score: 1

      There is no contradiction in not wanting companies or the government to trample on your privacy, and being willing to trade your privacy in exchange for services.

      I'm quite happy to let Gmail snuffle through my personal email like a truffle pig, in exchange for getting a great webmail service. I knew what I was getting into, and what the price was, and made a reasoned judgement as to the value of the service and the cost to my privacy.

      I would be hopping mad if my (paid for) business webmail provider suddenly decided to do some rifling through my email for their own purposes, as that is not what I agreed to.

      If privacy has a value, then it is a tradable commodity; someone trying to steal it != someone trying to buy it.

      How about scanning the wireless networks of non-customers? A lot of slashdoters have defended that "accident" while at the exact same time bashing the government for asking access to that data so they are able to investigate how far the "accident" go.

    8. Re:Marketing 123 by grumbel · · Score: 1

      I would be hopping mad if my (paid for) business webmail provider suddenly decided to do some rifling through my email for their own purposes, as that is not what I agreed to.

      It's not quite that simple. If you use your paid for business webmail account without privacy invasion and then mail a GMail user, then Google suddenly has a mail from you that it can sniffle through. If you happen to mail a lot of Google Mail users, they might end up with quite a few of your emails and a decent personality profile even so you never had a Google account.

      The problem with privacy invasion in communication is that your privacy can leak at both ends and you generally only have control over one.

    9. Re:Marketing 123 by nine-times · · Score: 5, Insightful

      It shows that the "omg free stuff" marketing works to people.

      It doesn't work on you, though, right? You're too smart for that stuff.

      But oh, wait... what's this? Look at the site you're posting on. Slashdot is a "free" website supported by ads. You are not Slashdot's customer, you are their product. Same thing, and you fell for it. So of course many Slashdotters will defend the ad-supported model. If you were truly against the ad-supported model, you wouldn't be reading this site.

    10. Re:Marketing 123 by DaleGlass · · Score: 1

      They really aren't, you're just trying to be a hipster and jump ahead of everyone else to where you think they're heading.

      What's a hipster? I see the term thrown around quite a lot, but I still haven't figured out what it refers to.

      I don't particularly care for for jumping ahead. In fact I think that most likely things are heading to some place I'm not going to like, so I'm in no rush of getting there first.

    11. Re:Marketing 123 by ge7 · · Score: 1

      Actually I'm a subscriber, so you could say I am also slashdots customer. I'm also not against ad-supported model as I happen to work within that industry - hence why I also have better understanding on how those things work and are run.

    12. Re:Marketing 123 by delinear · · Score: 1

      Can I get virgin to stop sending adverts to my home addressed ' To the occupier'? can I heck. Actually, the more they send the stuff the more unliekly that I will ever even consider buying anything from Virgin.

      You'll be lucky. I'm actually with Virgin and have been for a few years and I still regularly get their "To the occupier" spam. They can't even be bothered to filter out their existing customers because it's cheaper to just spam everyone. Even better, for the six months after I last moved house I was getting spam addressed to me forwarded from my old address. Because they screwed up the moving dates they had to cancel my old account at the old address and set up one at the new address - that somehow got logged in their system as "this guy has left, spam the hell out of him to try and get him back", even though they had everything they needed to realise I'd moved home AND they had the new address where I was already a customer! Luckily that stopped when I stopped getting my mail forwarded, the people at the old address are probably still getting it.

      Actually I'm getting increasingly annoyed with their poor service, I'm half tempted to save up all the letters I get from now until I decide it's less hassle to leave and then just return to sender when they ask my reasons for leaving.

    13. Re:Marketing 123 by somersault · · Score: 1

      Windows might now work as intended, but it hardly works well. Have you ever used another OS?

      --
      which is totally what she said
    14. Re:Marketing 123 by DaleGlass · · Score: 1

      I found this which suggests quite a lot can be removed, but not nearly all I'd like.

      For instance, this can't be removed: "DrmProvider.apk: Provides DRM functions, needed to access media files (including ringtones)" and I most definitely would want it gone. I'll play my music on my own terms.

    15. Re:Marketing 123 by zlogic · · Score: 1

      I'm pondering if it's possible to get an Android phone devoid of anything Google related.

      Get a noname Chinese phone. Distributing Google's Android apps/services requires a contract with Google (remember how Cyanogenmod was forced to stop distributing Market/Gmail/Google Maps?), and so small companies distribute only the free, open-sourced version of Android. But I have to warn you, Amazon App Store is much worse - less software and they don't pay app developers if they decide to use an app in their "free app of the day" promotion.

    16. Re:Marketing 123 by DaleGlass · · Score: 1

      Thanks, I'll consider it.

      Actually I don't particularly care for the app store. I've got a N900 currently, and haven't installed a single paid application on it. What I'm looking for is more or less a Linux laptop in cell phone form.

      I'll probably get the N9 if it's any good, but I don't think anything else of that sort is going to come out of Nokia, so I'll have to look at alternatives.

    17. Re:Marketing 123 by PCM2 · · Score: 1

      For instance, this can't be removed: "DrmProvider.apk: Provides DRM functions, needed to access media files (including ringtones)" and I most definitely would want it gone. I'll play my music on my own terms.

      Maybe you can't remove it, but I don't think you're really forced to use it. I don't use any DRM media on my phone. My ringtone is an MP3 I ripped myself.

      --
      Breakfast served all day!
    18. Re:Marketing 123 by lessthan · · Score: 1

      There is a difference between whoring and being raped. I know that Google is harvesting all my information and selling it to the ad men. I'm okay with it because I know where it is going and who is using it. (Thanks Slashdot!!) There is also an opt-out option available should I ever want it. (Not a take-back option, but a no-more option.) The news we see suggest that, if the government wants to know more about me, they are going to tap my phones and GPS tag my car. There is a huge difference there. A prostitute is not a victim of rape, all because of choice. Also, Google is never going to come to me and say "Your searches for grandpa porn is beyond the good taste of society, come with us you deviant," whereas that kind of regulation is a large part of our government today. Which, as a gay man, is a concern of mine. Rick Perry, a presidential candidate in the USA, as far as I understand, is in favor of a federal sodomy law. I'd really like to have some protection from a hidden government camera in my bedroom.

      --
      Space Shuttle was a program that strapped humans to an explosion and tried to stab through the sky with fire and math
    19. Re:Marketing 123 by aztracker1 · · Score: 1

      I have to say that Windows 7 works pretty well, though from what I've seen of Windows Phone 7, and the direction of Windows 8, that may be a backslide. Windows 2000 (not ME) and Windows 7 have been the two versions I liked at release. I work in a web application development environment, and that means a lot of backend systems in a Microsoft + Adobe/Flash shop. I'm hoping to get a new project done with Mongo + Node on the backend and middle teirs as I think it will be a better platform than MS-SQL + .Net (WCF/MVC). Time will tell.

      On the google front, they offer competitive applications that work well enough at the cost of your eyes. As long as they don't directly sell my information to anyone, and aren't complicit gov't spying (unless by court order), I can handle that. What facebook does by comparison is horrendous. It all costs money, and Google does have commercial services as well. Either way you go, it costs... as long as consumers are informed and consent to this tracking, I don't mind so much. Use duckduckgo if you want private searches, run 3rd party blockers of like and +1 buttons. It'll be okay.

      --
      Michael J. Ryan - tracker1.info
    20. Re:Marketing 123 by lennier · · Score: 1

      I wouldn't use Windows on a home computer even if it was free.

      I used to say that, because to some extent I still really do value the FLOSS ideals of liberty and consider it's worth making sacrifices to keep.

      Sadly I've taken to using the Windows half of my dual-boot Win7/Ubuntu box more and more. Mostly because of 1) iTunes, 2) Steam and 3) Windows Media Center for TV watching, but also because Ubuntu's UI shenanigans are making me feel less and less welcome in Linux (and I've been using a Linux distro in some form as my primary home PC since 1998). If I wanted a Mac OSX ripoff done badly, well, that's exactly what Windows 7 is, and it works better than Ubuntu Unity - plus, I get to play indie games.

      I wouldn't say I've quite ragequit the Linux world yet, but between Mark Shuttleworth and Asa Dotzler, I'm coming so, so close. There was a time not so long ago when the FLOSS alternatives weren't quite as good as the commercial ones, but were getting visibly better every release. A couple years ago, though, we hit the top of the curve; now, for some reason, every release the Free/Open world gets not only worse in terms of performance, but less free and open.

      It's very frustrating.

      --
      You are not a brain: http://books.google.com/books?id=2oV61CeDx-YC
    21. Re:Marketing 123 by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Sure Slashdot is an ad supported website, but you don't have to give up personal information to use it.

    22. Re:Marketing 123 by shentino · · Score: 1

      It's ok because Google lets me decide for myself whether I want to whore it out, and respects my wishes when I decide not to.

      Other companies deceive you into giving consent and then get lazy and cryptic when you try to opt out.

      Governments simply take it by force.

    23. Re:Marketing 123 by Anarchduke · · Score: 1

      Its my privacy to whore out. I give Google an occasional handjob to get free email, but that's my choice. And I also actually read the terms of service and the privacy policy, because I was really, really bored that day.

      --
      who prays for Satan? Who in 18 centuries has had the humanity to pray for the 1 sinner that needed it most? ~Mark Twain
    24. Re:Marketing 123 by somersault · · Score: 1

      Well, people keep saying that Steam works fine under WINE, and has for a long time. I'd use it myself if I hadn't already switched to consoles for now because dual booting destroys my soul. I've still got the notion that I'll buy/build another gaming PC at some point, but there's been no real reason to so far. Maybe if Minecraft starts to look more interesting and polished.

      I switched to Mint from Ubuntu - it's slightly nicer than Ubuntu was before Unity.

      --
      which is totally what she said
    25. Re:Marketing 123 by tehcyder · · Score: 1

      I wouldn't use Windows on a home computer even if it was free.

      Free as in beer or free as in speech?

      --
      To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it
    26. Re:Marketing 123 by somersault · · Score: 1

      Beer. The context was ge7 was talking about people saying "omg free stuff". Saving money is nice, but it's not why I personally don't use Windows. I have a valid XP Pro license, I just don't use it any more.

      --
      which is totally what she said
    27. Re:Marketing 123 by Anguirel · · Score: 1

      I used Mac OS (up to and including OS X) and haven't much cared for them. I also used an AIX system, and a few varieties of Linux and BSD. I still spend most of my time in Windows, where I have enough control to deal with things (Mac OS tends to hide the real controls pretty heavily), but enough ease-of-use that I can get things done without reading man pages for hours. Also, games. Which is really what I spend most of my time doing anyway.

      That said, I suspect at least some of that "Ease-of-Use" is from early mindset lock-in in many ways -- I used DOS and Windows early, and learned the quirks there and have no desire to go learning the quirks of something else for marginal benefit (and yes, I do believe that for my personal use (read: games) it would be of marginal benefit at best to be switching to Linux or Mac, and likely considerable detriment). However, I believe that some is that Linux (and all fo the other *IX variants), despite all the attempts otherwise, is still not terribly non-power-user friendly, and Macs are at the opposite end of the spectrum, being power-user unfriendly, but easy to use for someone who just wants to click a button and have things "just work" -- as long as you're ok with doing it in the only allowed way as prescribed by Apple (note: this might be my dislike of iTunes leaking through into my thoughts of general Mac OS behavior, since that's most of what I've used Macs for recently). Windows is generally somewhere in between, and hated by both for it.

      In terms of Operating a System, I would say Windows 7 works "well" -- though perhaps you have some alternate definition to "runs the programs I tell it to, when I tell it to, and generally behave nicely".

      --
      ~Anguirel (lit. Living Star-Iron)
      QA: The art of telling someone that their baby is ugly without getting punched.
    28. Re:Marketing 123 by somersault · · Score: 1

      If you are wanting to game on PC, then I agree that Windows is the only relatively hassle-free option. That's why I started gaming on consoles.

      iTunes was one of the reasons I got fed up of OSX. They don't really have any media players as good as Winamp on Windows, or Rhythmbox/Exaile/whatever-else-you-like on Linux (maybe some of these are available on OSX now of course). If iTunes had a play queue/dynamic playlist ("play next in party shuffle" is not the same thing..) it would be 100x better for a start.

      Ubuntu and Mint (the only 2 Linux distros I've used recently) are both user friendly IMO. The only config file I've edited by hand on this Mint install has been my .emacs file. The other day I wanted to remap the capslock key to control, and started looking around online for ways to do it - I assumed I'd need a special program to remap keys as you do on Windows. Then I went to Preferences->Keyboard, and found it was a built in option.

      Windows 7 in my opinion is a mess. It still has all the same settings pages as XP, but things aren't arranged in what I'd call an intuitive manner. Thankfully you can find what you want by typing the name of the thing you're looking for into the Start menu search bar to get around this, but I still think MS are going in a weird direction with their reorganisation of menus, especially with all the Ribbon guff. In Mint the main menu is great. It has a similar search function as Windows 7, but I never need it because everything is organised sensibly and efficiently.

      On top of that, Windows 7 doesn't have anything like a package manager built in yet. This makes life so convenient, especially when setting up a new system. Why should I have to manually download and manually install all the same crap every time I use a new computer? With a package manager, you tick a couple of boxes, click apply, and it installs stable versions of everything you want. Then it keeps them up to date for you with one interface - no Java/Flash Update popups.

      Another little niggle is that you can't make the Windows 7 Start menu smaller than about 150 pixels or so. You can auto-hide.. but then you can't see the system clock at a glance..

      Having lots of little inconveniences like that together it just pisses me off, and it simply feels more pleasant to use Linux. Partially because it's more configurable than OSX and Windows. I've not changed much on this system since most things are good by default, but for example I've chosen a nice colour theme, replaced the task bar with a dock, and installed Guake as my terminal (f***ing love having a drop-down console in the OS, I bound it to super-t - it's very handy for me as a developer and network admin).

      I expect MS will have their own store/package manager type thing soon, and OSX now has the App Store (though I don't know how it compares to package managers yet - ie if it contains a lot of commonly used free utilities). Overall things are going to keep getting better all round, which is nice. It's good to finally see some real competition in the OS space again.

      --
      which is totally what she said
    29. Re:Marketing 123 by poofmeisterp · · Score: 1

      It shows that the "omg free stuff" marketing works to people....

      The thing that comes to mind every single damn time I see something that's offered for "free" is "what do you want?"

      The other quote that applies is "When something seems to good to be true...."

  3. I'm currently really pissed at FB... by advocate_one · · Score: 5, Interesting
    as they've disabled my account until I can prove who I am... ridiculous as all details on the account are correct and I'm not using a pseudonym or weird punctuation or daft middle name either for it...

    So don't think it can't happen to you, as it has to me and I was following their rules

    --
    Donald 'Duck' Dunn: We had a band powerful enough to turn goat piss into gasoline.
    1. Re:I'm currently really pissed at FB... by ge7 · · Score: 2

      At least Facebook only requires you to provide valid verified phone number or credit card. If someone reports you for fake name on Google they ask you to send them scan of your passport or ID card. Via internet. Anyone can guess which is just so much more insecure.

    2. Re:I'm currently really pissed at FB... by advocate_one · · Score: 4, Informative
      FB require a scan of real ID now... I'm currently going through the process

      Disabled account appeal-ID request

      In order to reactivate your account we will first need to verify the authenticity of your account. Please fill out the following form and we will re-evaluate your account status.

      Your email address:

      The email address where you can be reached. If you are able to access your login email address, enter that here.

      Full name:

      on the account

      Date of birth:

      Your login email address:

      Please upload a government-issued ID to this report and make sure that your full name, date of birth and photo are clear. You should also black out any personal information that is not needed to verify your identity (e.g. social security number).

      If you do not have access to a scanner, a digital image of your photo ID will be accepted as well. Rest assured that we will permanently delete your ID from our servers once we have used it to verify the authenticity of your account.

      ID attachment:

      Select a file from your computer to upload your identification. (Supported formats: .jpg, .jpeg, .tiff, .pdf or .doc)

      Note that writing in and submitting your ID multiple times will not result in a faster response. Once you submit your initial request, it is placed in a queue and responded to accordingly. We appreciate your patience and apologise for any inconvenience this may cause.

      --
      Donald 'Duck' Dunn: We had a band powerful enough to turn goat piss into gasoline.
    3. Re:I'm currently really pissed at FB... by modmans2ndcoming · · Score: 1

      weird...with me I just needed to provide a credit card.

    4. Re:I'm currently really pissed at FB... by Mashiki · · Score: 1

      Maybe someone can explain to me this still on-going fascination with "social networking" sites? Maybe I out grew it when I lived through the explosion of mIRC and ICQ.

      --
      Om, nomnomnom...
    5. Re:I'm currently really pissed at FB... by Inda · · Score: 1

      That's interesting because copying your passport is illegal in the UK. Same is true for your drivers license.

      --
      This post contains benzene, nitrosamines, formaldehyde and hydrogen cyanide.
    6. Re:I'm currently really pissed at FB... by maxwell+demon · · Score: 2

      Actually, it is now forbidden to make a scan of the new German identity card (with very narrow exceptions). [German Wikipedia link; the English Wikipedia entry doesn't seem to contain that information]

      In other words, if you already have the new identity card and provide a scan to Facebook, you break the law.

      --
      The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
    7. Re:I'm currently really pissed at FB... by cellocgw · · Score: 2

      That's interesting because copying your passport is illegal in the UK. Same is true for your drivers license
      I suspect that in this case, "copy" is not the same as "image." Certainly in the USA, it's illegal to make a copy (counterfeit item passing as real) of yr license, but quite legal to send a scanned image (not even close to pretending to be real).

      --
      https://app.box.com/WitthoftResume Code: https://github.com/cellocgw
    8. Re:I'm currently really pissed at FB... by JasterBobaMereel · · Score: 1

      No image is illegal as well, you do not own your passport or driving licence it belongs to a government agency

      They own the copyright and all control of it (so they can remove it if they need to)

      --
      Puteulanus fenestra mortis
    9. Re:I'm currently really pissed at FB... by ColdWetDog · · Score: 1

      Maybe someone can explain to me this still on-going fascination with "social networking" sites? Maybe I out grew it when I lived through the explosion of mIRC and ICQ.

      I think you need another digit in your UID to understand the phenomena. It's OK to ask everyone to get off your lawn now.

      --
      Faster! Faster! Faster would be better!
    10. Re:I'm currently really pissed at FB... by tnk1 · · Score: 1

      I'm given to understand it is something to do with the fact that humans are social and like to share what they are doing. People used to do the same thing by writing letters or calling people on the phone. The only difference is that now it's multimedia and can be monetized. It also depends on what you grew up with. Personally I could care less if I had a Facebook account, and even though I've used IRC, I didn't even have much use for that either. When I grew up, people called each other on the phone. Many of us even used the indestructible Bakelite pulse dial ones.

      Just like the teenage girls would need their own phone lines installed for their needs in my day, they use FB to be insanely social today. And of course, the boys go where the girls can be found. And there you go.

    11. Re:I'm currently really pissed at FB... by PCM2 · · Score: 1

      In the U.S., they recommend you carry a photocopy of the identification page of your passport when you travel, because having a copy will "will make getting a new passport easier" should yours be lost or stolen. So it's not all that illegal.

      --
      Breakfast served all day!
    12. Re:I'm currently really pissed at FB... by aztracker1 · · Score: 1

      When paypal flagged my account, they wanted me to send ID, I didn't have a scanner and took a picture of it with my phone, and sent that, they first denied it, then after a phone call was cleared up. Don't get divorced, move and update your address, bank and other contact information apparently. I don't like paypal, so really want to see more alternatives pop up.

      --
      Michael J. Ryan - tracker1.info
    13. Re:I'm currently really pissed at FB... by antdude · · Score: 1

      Same here. I was on Fb for about three weeks and they kicked me off too. I refuse to my real datas. I had no problems on Friendster, MySpace, etc. http://aqfl.net/node/7159 for the details. They also want proof for me to get my access back. Frak you, G+, and others. :(

      --
      Ant(Dude) @ Quality Foraged Links (AQFL.net) & The Ant Farm (antfarm.ma.cx / antfarm.home.dhs.org).
    14. Re:I'm currently really pissed at FB... by antdude · · Score: 1

      Connecting to people without chat, e-mails, etc. It's a new media. I noticed a lot of people refuse to use the old media beside Facebook. :(

      --
      Ant(Dude) @ Quality Foraged Links (AQFL.net) & The Ant Farm (antfarm.ma.cx / antfarm.home.dhs.org).
    15. Re:I'm currently really pissed at FB... by nedlohs · · Score: 1

      Maybe the government shouldn't tell you to copy your passport then:

      make a note of the passport number and consider taking a photocopy with you

      - http://www.fco.gov.uk/en/travel-and-living-abroad/staying-safe/checklist

      or

      * Make a note of your passport number, date and place of issue (or take a photocopy), and keep separately in a safe place
      * Leave a photocopy with a friend or relative at home
      * Keep your passport in the hotel safe and carry a photocopy with you

      http://www.fco.gov.uk/en/travel-and-living-abroad/gapyear/gapyearplanning/gapyearvisaspassports

      Or maybe your misinterpreting the actual laws about copying passport covers in advertisements or making physical copies that someone could try and pass off as real.

  4. Responsibility by brusk · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I'm unaware of any company that feels responsible to their product.

    That's rather unimaginative. Lots of companies (or rather the people who run them) do show some responsibility toward their product. The first example that comes to mind is animal breeders: the good ones care about the animals they raise and have ethical standards in how they treat them, even when they are going to be sold as food (all the more so when they are going to become pets). Many artists certainly feel responsible toward their product, even when they sell it.

    To what extent is this true of Google? Time will tell, but it's unproductive to say that because they are in this to make money it's impossible for them to be responsible. The real question is what combination of public visibility/pressure, economic incentives, and regulation will lead to optimal outcomes.

    --
    .sig withheld by request
    1. Re:Responsibility by Brucelet · · Score: 2

      I hope fore our sake that the better analogy here is dog breeders and not beef farmers.

    2. Re:Responsibility by Opportunist · · Score: 3, Insightful

      The closer the "boss" of a company is to the product, the more he cares about the quality. Hence I prefer to buy at small shops to huge corporations. Not only is my 200 bucks purchase important to the small shop while it's at best peanuts to the corporation that writes its balance in thousands of USD because else the numbers get too big to manage. The shop owner also cares about his shop and its reputation, he will make sure that his employees are going to represent it well and they will care about word of mouth. Nobody working at a huge corporation gives half a shit about its reputation or whether the company is doing well or flounders.

      Be honest: Do you care about the company you work for? I don't. My current employer is a huge, faceless corp without any personal investment from anyone working there. Why should I? It was something completely different when I worked in a much smaller (~20 people) company, I knew the boss on a first name base because he sat an office away from me, and I could see how much he worked to make the company a success, and it encouraged and motivated me to do the same. I wanted him to succeed because I saw how he did his best to make the company a success, and I admire people who put their heart and sweat behind something.

      Currently? I couldn't care less whether they sink or swim. If they go down, I hop on the next train. IT sec is currently on the rise, it's not like I will be out of a job any time soon.

      --
      We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
    3. Re:Responsibility by grumling · · Score: 1

      Maybe not the company, but our customers DO matter to me. I work for them, the company is just a broker for my services.

      --
      "Well, good luck finding a judge that doesn't run a bestiality site."
    4. Re:Responsibility by The+Famous+Brett+Wat · · Score: 1

      I'm unaware of any company that feels responsible to their product.

      The example that sprang to my mind was recruitment agents. As a contractor, I'm the kind of product that recruitment agents deal in. I don't know whether they feel responsible to me, as such, but I'm pretty sure they're aware of the fact that I will cease to be their product if I feel that they are not operating sufficiently in my interests. I expect that Google is somewhat aware of that dynamic, as relates to its own "product", although they aren't showing too much evidence of it with the G+ thing. Mind you, there's a lack of competition in social networking: G+ doesn't need to be the perfect social network -- it just needs to be sufficiently less obnoxious than Facebook, and Facebook has set the bar pretty low.

      --
      proof, n. A demonstration that a conclusion is implied by certain premises and axioms.
    5. Re:Responsibility by Charliemopps · · Score: 1

      The difference is that what you're talking about are individual business owners, which is an entirely different thing than a publicly traded company. Google has a legal, and some would say even moral liability to its investors to do whatever is most profitable, irrelevant of how they feel about their "product"

    6. Re:Responsibility by Raenex · · Score: 1

      Be honest: Do you care about the company you work for? I don't.

      Whether you care or not about the company, I believe in doing the job you were hired for, taking pride in your work, and treating customers with respect.

    7. Re:Responsibility by gonz · · Score: 1

      I work for one of the biggest faceless software corporations in the world. I actually spend a lot of time thinking about our customer needs and all the little details that affect the user experience. When we receive a bug report, often I am not allowed to talk directly to the customer, but I still think of them as a person and try find a solution that will make them happy and improve our product. Many of my coworkers have a similar attitude. The financial payoff for doing this is at best extremely indirect.

      The fact is that humans often seek to do a good job regardless of the financial payoff. There's a whole theory about "Intrinsic Motivation" that explains this, see here:

      http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u6XAPnuFjJc

    8. Re:Responsibility by Opportunist · · Score: 2

      When I chose it, it was in jest and as a cynical comment. It gets truer and truer every day.

      Bluntly, I was an idealist. I still am to some degree. I guess like most tech people are. I really wanted to improve the world and make it a better place for those that exist in it. I wanted to satisfy my customer and give him the best performance I could possibly deliver.

      In the meantime I noticed that all this gets me in the long run is a very severe burnout and no satisfaction whatsoever. Customers are still dissatisfied because nobody aside of me gives half a shit, and my boss isn't satisfied because the customer would have paid for an inferior (and cheaper) product too.

      You turn into an Opportunist in such an environment. Whether you like it or not. Either that or you repeat your burnout episodes until you finally learn your lesson.

      --
      We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
    9. Re:Responsibility by Opportunist · · Score: 1

      So did I. I hope you won't suffer the same way I did.

      --
      We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
    10. Re:Responsibility by tpstigers · · Score: 1

      They all treat us like cattle. The difference is that Google realizes that happy cows make better hamburger.

    11. Re:Responsibility by poofmeisterp · · Score: 1

      .....Time will tell, but it's unproductive to say that because they are in this to make money it's impossible for them to be responsible. The real question is what combination of public visibility/pressure, economic incentives, and regulation will lead to optimal outcomes.

      Let's schedule a national "Google-Me-Not" day (only 1% of people may consider doing it, but will give good data). Let's have a day where you use NO Google. Not for work, not for play, not for communication, nothing. Just nothing.

      See how long you can hold up. When I say "you", I mean people in politics AND non-politicians.

      Ain't nothin' gonna happen except a few slaps on the wrist with a little wink or two attached in the end. ;)

  5. Beware if you're not paying... by Gavin+Scott · · Score: 3

    It's the same as it has always been with commercial television, which most people don't understand either.

    The vendor is the commercial broadcaster.
    The customer is the advertiser.
    The product is the viewer's soul which is sold to the advertiser in 30 second increments.

    If you're not paying for something, take time to consider that maybe *you* are what's being sold.

    Paying real money is very often the lowest cost way to get something.

    There ain't no such thing as a free lunch.

    G.

    1. Re:Beware if you're not paying... by andydread · · Score: 2

      If Google is selling my identity(Private Information) to their affiliates why is it that my phone is not getting blown up Google's affiliates. Why aren't they blowing up my email? Why aren't they flooding my postal mailbox with their offers? I think all this "ZOMG Google is selling your information to advertisers" seems quite alarmist. If Google converts my private info to some unique ID that Google then target me for their advertisers then I have no problem with that. I am not sure they are giving(selling) my private information directly to advertisers because then it would seem that the advertisers wouldn't need Google anymore once they get that information. They could target me directly. Does anyone have any definite proof that my private information is handed over to their advertisers? Are the cable companies selling my private information to their advertisers?

    2. Re:Beware if you're not paying... by AmberBlackCat · · Score: 1

      I don't think it matters with Google. We're paying for our Android phones and they're giving loads of information to Google. And even if its possible to remove every Google app, that won't separate Google from the phone book or every web browser on the planet.

  6. Google is more evil than the NBC/ABC/CBS ever were by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    The TV networks only traffic'd in viewers in aggregate form, e.g. college-educated males aged 18-34 watch "Seinfeld" in such-and-such proportions.

    Google will use an ever-growing variety of tools to determine exactly what each man, woman, and child in the entire world is doing, thinking, buying, selling, and traveling to on a moment-by-moment basis, whether they're explicitly logged in or not. And this data will be stored, replicated, indexed, data mined, and peddled for at least the next 150 years. It will never go away.

    It wasn't long ago when Google was considered the protector of everyone's all-important right to obtain any piece of digital content for free. I remember thinking, you guys are fools. Sony, Warner, and EMI want to charge us ten or fifteen bucks for a CD. They'll take their cash and be out of the picture. Google wants to own us forever. They or their successors and customers will be publishing the dirty laundry of how each of individually led our lives long after we're dead.

  7. Duh. by repetty · · Score: 1

    Well, "Duh." Same for TV and radio. It's a REALLY old business model.

    Here's what I taught my kids, growing up: Follow the money.

    1. Re:Duh. by poofmeisterp · · Score: 1

      Well, "Duh." Same for TV and radio. It's a REALLY old business model.

      Here's what I taught my kids, growing up: Follow the money.

      That is one of the most sagacious remarks I have seen today. Thank you. If *I* had kids, I would probably be viewed as an abusive parent for repeating that phrase so many times to them. :)

  8. You noticed that now? by Opportunist · · Score: 5, Insightful

    It's been the staple of "free" commercial TV. You, the viewer, are not the "valued customer". You're the product, to be sold to the ad companies. Why the outcry now?

    I don't think it's good or that I feel like it's ok to "sell" me, but, people, if you really just noticed that now, I wonder where you've been the last 50 years.

    --
    We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
    1. Re:You noticed that now? by tqk · · Score: 1

      I don't think it's good or that I feel like it's ok to "sell" me, but, people, if you really just noticed that now, I wonder where you've been the last 50 years.

      Newspapers have been doing it for a lot longer than 50 years. The purchase price of a newspaper has been subsidized by ad revenue since almost day one.

      As for Google (or anyone/anything) selling my details as simply one nameless data point within a large demographic, meh. We all aggregate data about the world around us all the time in order to function in it at all. Google just found a way to milk it better than anyone else so far.

      What I do resent is those entities that're stuffing my data into RDBs, then cross referencing with other RDBs again and again until everything that's out there lines up and unequivocally points undeniably back to me. That sort of thing certainly should be illegal, or at least reserved for LEOs with a valid warrant. I'm talking about you, cookie trackers, Facebook, etc.

      --
      "Tongue tied and twisted, just an Earth bound misfit ..." -- Pink Floyd.
    2. Re:You noticed that now? by repetty · · Score: 1

      And it was the revenue model used by radio for decades before TV.

    3. Re:You noticed that now? by hedwards · · Score: 1

      The outcry is that in the past you'd get whatever ads were sold based upon demographic information, often they wouldn't be targeted at you. But now, everybody is targeting information and data mining whether or not you've given them permission to do so. It's one thing for a service like gmail to do it, they do have a ToS and policies that you can read ahead of time, and quite another for random sites to do it without notifying you that it's happening.

      Additionally, it's common for sites like FB to change the policy regularly, requiring people to stay current. Most will adopt reasonable defaults, but some won't.

    4. Re:You noticed that now? by AmberBlackCat · · Score: 1

      Oddly enough, we're paying for television and still getting advertisements. We paid for our phones and SprintZone is pushing advertisements through it and apps are showing up related to the latest movies released. I paid for my computer and it has tons of trial versions of software. I am one of the three people on the planet who paid for all of their DVD movies and every one of them has advertisements. They will shove advertisements down your throat whether you pay or not.

    5. Re:You noticed that now? by Coriolis · · Score: 1

      Did you get alarmed when it "spread" from the printed word to radio? From radio to television? This business goes back to at least 1833, and you just sound like an anonymous Chicken Little. Or maybe you're just late to the party.

      --
      Rgasuya aata! : I have been coding Perl and cannot tell where my fingers are now!
    6. Re:You noticed that now? by Red_Chaos1 · · Score: 1

      I am amused by the view that we are the "product", because that is a farce. The viewer is much like the person working at 7-Eleven or McDonald's. Looked down on with ignorant contempt by people in higher station. The reality is if we all gave the collective finger, then where would they be? All the ad placement in the world wouldn't help either of them. They *need* us for the whole retarded system to work. Given that need, I think we should be treated a bit better. A little respect isn't a bad thing.

      Of course the real true reality is that only a few people know/believe what I say, the rest are bleating sheep and will do no more than cry a little, then go on with the status quo.

    7. Re:You noticed that now? by Opportunist · · Score: 1

      Duh, without a product, my customer wouldn't pay me money. Of course they need us. Like the 7/11 needs Beef Jerky.

      --
      We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
  9. And thus Google became evil... by AlexiaDeath · · Score: 1

    Oh well... Nothing we can really do about it. Ive been using google mail for my main email account for some time now. It will be hard to replace it specially because of the aggregation/generic mail client features. But I guess I have to, since in google's book I am with my extremely stable(15+ years in use) pseudonym a persona non grata. Many people have extremely good reasons for using pseudonyms. I'm not one of them. I simply chose a different name to live my creative/online life under and I intend to keep it. If Google thinks that makes me unfit to consume their services, then I will have to find something else.

    1. Re:And thus Google became evil... by aztracker1 · · Score: 1

      I have mixed feelings on this. I've had my handle for nearly 20 years now, so know how you feel. I still don't mind using my legal name... though my legal name without my moniker is fairly common.

      --
      Michael J. Ryan - tracker1.info
  10. Marketing-speak, newspeak, BS and reality by SplatMan_DK · · Score: 1

    Is the poster and TFA seriously proposing we can use the newspeak-marketing-BS from a sales brochure to evaluate the ethically values of a large multinational corporation?

    Would it make a difference if the same marketing-BS-brochure stated that freebee end users were the customers?

    Trusting hot air marketing text = fail! No matter what you conclusion is.

    - Jesper

    --
    My security clearance is so high I have to kill myself if I remember I have it...
  11. Google's non-issue issue by vegaspctech · · Score: 2

    Google's naming policy strikes me as a non-issue. It won't prevent anyone from publishing indirectly, by way of an out-of-area friend, which is safer option anyway if you're posting about a government that wishes to silence you. It seems to me that worst case, it creates an opening for Google's competitors. Last I checked there were still many of those. Were it a government decision it'd be a different matter.

    --

    Making the world a better place, one psychotic episode at a time.

    1. Re:Google's non-issue issue by Inda · · Score: 2


      I feel the same.

      I have the following people (names changed slightly to protect the abusers) in my circles: Maccy Dee; Dave JustDave, Darque Matter. Obviously not their real names.

      Does Google really care?

      --
      This post contains benzene, nitrosamines, formaldehyde and hydrogen cyanide.
  12. Re:Google is more evil than the NBC/ABC/CBS ever w by Opportunist · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Google is not "more evil". They just have the better tools, if NBCBSwhatever had the tools, they'd do EXACTLY the same.

    Companies see you as a way to make money. By selling to you, or by selling you. Either is fine by them.

    --
    We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
  13. I think what *slashdotters* don't understand often by Anubis350 · · Score: 3, Interesting

    ...is that to most people that's free.

    --
    "goodbye and hello, as always" ~Prince Corwin, from Zelazny's Amber series
  14. Here's What's New by RobotRunAmok · · Score: 4, Insightful

    What's new is that Google has found success (initially, at least; people seem to be wising up lately) among the self-proclaimed and self-absorbed digerati crowd that heretofore viewed themselves somehow above the Marketing that always suckered in the mere mortal consumers beneath them. The smug, sniffy, MS-hating, open source espousing, latte-drinking, Starbucks-frequenting hipsters with fifty-dollar haircuts all fell for the warm gooey spin that using Google products made them better people -- which would have been hilarious just-desserts if it hadn't had the unfortunate side-effect of increasing their market share so much.

    1. Re:Here's What's New by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

      The smug, sniffy, MS-hating, open source espousing, latte-drinking, Starbucks-frequenting hipsters with fifty-dollar haircuts all fell for the warm gooey spin that using Google products made them better people -- which would have been hilarious just-desserts if it hadn't had the unfortunate side-effect of increasing their market share so much.

      I'm just glad people are finally starting to wise up. Hopefully the momentary bubble in marketshare will soon be gone and we can go back to paying Microsoft and using closed source software, where we know we're the customer and not the product.

    2. Re:Here's What's New by DaleGlass · · Score: 4, Insightful

      OSS doesn't have anything to do with marketing though. That's just how Google does things.

      OSS usually earns money through support and custom solutions.

    3. Re:Here's What's New by rubycodez · · Score: 1, Insightful

      hahaha, of course Microsoft's customer is The Corporation, they don't give a flying fuck about the rights of individuals. That's why your windows desktop is a combination billboard, snooper and pinball machine for marketers.

    4. Re:Here's What's New by Oligonicella · · Score: 2

      "That's why your windows desktop is a combination billboard, snooper and pinball machine for marketers."

      Wow. Bullshit, just bullshit.

    5. Re:Here's What's New by Jeremiah+Cornelius · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Windows is the product of a legendary, institutional inferiority complex, fueled by twin engines of incredible amounts of capital and hubris.

      Defenders of the "Windows User Experience" serve to illustrate the concept of a consumer's "Stockholm syndrome".

      That is, until Google puts them to shame in this, for the obvious reasons stated in the article.

      --
      "Flyin' in just a sweet place,
      Never been known to fail..."
    6. Re:Here's What's New by no-body · · Score: 2

      "That's why your windows desktop is a combination billboard, snooper and pinball machine for marketers."

      Wow. Bullshit, just bullshit.

      Oh boy! Disable your Windoze built-in firewall, get decent firewall software, lock your box down and watch how many programs how often call home.
       
      Then, on your Windoze task manager watch how many megabytes of unauthorized gnomes are sitting there hogging your memory doing exactly what on YOUR system?
       
      Once you're there, you may figure out better what kind of BS is going on.

    7. Re:Here's What's New by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Convincing others about the goodness of ideas such as software, by working diligently and making the world a better place in the process is marketing as well. Do you want to get your set of patches approved to the trunk? Market the goodness of the set by showing how well it solves the problem. That's marketing too.

    8. Re:Here's What's New by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Mod this guy up.

      It's bitch, bitch, bitch here about "a duopoly" when it comes to broadband; it's meow, meow, meow when it comes to "vendor lock-in" but someone like Mensa Babe can still utter You don't have to use Google if you don't want to and I'd rather be a product of a company that does no evil in regarding this new push (only the latest in a series) for a false "transparency" that only serves corporations and tries to deny that same transparency when it comes to corporate manipulation of laws, statues and financial statements?

      This isn't about using Google, for fnord's sake. It's about people getting sick and tired of being used like machine parts and farm animals to the detriment of the common welfare and experience. It's about resisting a proto-totalitatian takeover of the channels of communication to squeeze them into a little manageable box for the gatekeepers of media. It's about turning the internets into just another cable tv delivery system.

      It's about a lot more too, but if that's the quality of Mensa-thinking lately, there's no use outlining the problem; I'm glad I left Mensa 20 years ago.

    9. Re:Here's What's New by bonch · · Score: 2

      we can go back to [...] using closed source software

      You already do every time you use the Google search engine.

    10. Re:Here's What's New by mcvos · · Score: 1

      My experience with Microsoft is that I'm still not the customer. Not theirs, anyway. Game companies are their customer, and I'm the game companies' customer. I'm forced to buy a bad product I don't want in order to be able to use the good product I want.

    11. Re:Here's What's New by bonch · · Score: 5, Insightful

      What's new is that Google has found success (initially, at least; people seem to be wising up lately) among the self-proclaimed and self-absorbed digerati crowd that heretofore viewed themselves somehow above the Marketing that always suckered in the mere mortal consumers beneath them. The smug, sniffy, MS-hating, open source espousing, latte-drinking, Starbucks-frequenting hipsters with fifty-dollar haircuts all fell for the warm gooey spin that using Google products made them better people -- which would have been hilarious just-desserts if it hadn't had the unfortunate side-effect of increasing their market share so much.

      Your post is getting pulled back and forth by moderators because it tells a hard truth. Google fans have become as annoying as hardcore Apple fans. They bought into "don't be evil"--a bit of tongue-in-cheek engineering humor--and built up a religion around the company. Because Google competed with Microsoft, that endeared them to techies who saw themselves as too smart to be using Microsoft products. Because Google used Linux, that endeared them to "M$"-hating nerds who saw Google as part of the open source movement. Android because the rallying cry for cross-armed, anti-social cynics standing in the corner of the party watching the iPhone users socialize.

      Finally, people have begun to wake up to the fact that Google is not what they perceived it to be. Their refusal to implement Do Not Track in Chrome, which would negatively impact their core business of web ads, is one example. Another is the fact that they claim to be all about openness yet withhold the source to Android from non-privileged partners, as well as ship Flash and AAC/MP3 playback in Chrome. They're even using Android compatibility requirements as a way to obstruct phone vendors that choose not to use Google services. And the Street View scandal is interesting because many don't seem to realize they were "accidentally" collecting that data for four years before finally revealing it under pressure from German investigators (Google fans seem to believe that Google stepped forward and admitted it on their own as a gesture of good will).

      However, for so many years, mentioning any of this on tech sites like Slashdot, Reddit, Hacker News, and so on would get you voted down relentlessly by obsessive fans who could not accept any criticism of their hero. Google's purpose in appealing to those crowds--and I wouldn't be surprised if Google employees secretly post here and at other sites to help in this--is to win the support of techie communities, who will then defend them and give them a pass for things that companies like Microsoft could never get away with. It's free advertising.

      The biggest success story, in my opinion, is convincing techies that they are an open source company and making them forget that their core business is built on a closed source search engine. Google are the gatekeepers of the web, a global megacorp that single-handedly regulates web traffic which makes it enormous profits. It doesn't seem to occur to the open source crowd that the web is tied up behind a closed source product that is as closed and proprietary as Windows. You don't have access to the source; you can't view it and see the algorithms it's using; you can't examine how it's using your personal data. For a crowd that's always so vigilant in attacking other companies for being closed, their acceptance of Google is incredible.

    12. Re:Here's What's New by Isaac+Remuant · · Score: 1

      I'm interested now.

      Is there any open source search engine you'd recommend?

      --
      "Science can amuse and fascinate us all, but it is engineering that changes the world. " - Asimov.
    13. Re:Here's What's New by Jeremiah+Cornelius · · Score: 1

      I'm always fuckin' cute, bitch.

      --
      "Flyin' in just a sweet place,
      Never been known to fail..."
    14. Re:Here's What's New by NuShrike · · Score: 1

      It's called in short, Google Koolaid. You could call it white-tower hubris, or Buzz also.

    15. Re:Here's What's New by tehcyder · · Score: 1

      hahaha, of course Microsoft's customer is The Corporation, they don't give a flying fuck about the rights of individuals. That's why your windows desktop is a combination billboard, snooper and pinball machine for marketers.

      I think you must have downloaded some evil piece of software by Google onto your Windows desktop for that to be the case.

      --
      To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it
    16. Re:Here's What's New by tehcyder · · Score: 1

      Oh boy! Disable your Windoze built-in firewall, get decent firewall software, lock your box down and watch how many programs how often call home.

      And that's Microsoft's fault how exactly? Or do you count Windows' automatic checking for security updates as some evil intrusion on your privacy?

      --
      To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it
    17. Re:Here's What's New by The13thSin · · Score: 1

      Android because the rallying cry for cross-armed, anti-social cynics standing in the corner of the party watching the iPhone users socialize.

      Wow wow... hold on fellow. You now are doing exactly what you object to in others, making an unrealistic caricature of groups of users. You do realize there are more Android phones sold every day then there iPhone's right? I don't know in which groups you hang of course, but with my friends, the "in" crowd is definitely not the iPhone user. But all of this is completely irrelevant because we should judge the products, not their users.

      Finally, people have begun to wake up to the fact that Google is not what they perceived it to be. [various examples]

      I'm sure there are some delusional Fandroids out there that think Google is God, but I'm pretty sure there are just as many delusional iFans and a significant portion of delusional Open Source / MS supporters (sorry I couldn't come up with anything clever to name those fans).

      But please remember that's just the vocal minority on internet fora, most of the market just thinks: "Hey, this company has done pretty well. I'm not so sure about their privacy stuff that I sometimes read about, but their products are pretty nice.". There's no "Evil Google (TM)" or "Holy Google (TM)" for most people, and that's a good thing.

      However, for so many years, mentioning any of this on tech sites like Slashdot, Reddit, Hacker News, and so on would get you voted down relentlessly by obsessive fans who could not accept any criticism of their hero. Google's purpose in appealing to those crowds--and I wouldn't be surprised if Google employees secretly post here and at other sites to help in this--is to win the support of techie communities, who will then defend them and give them a pass for things that companies like Microsoft could never get away with. It's free advertising.

      Well now, this is getting up to the level of tinfoil hats mixed with an extremely selective world view. I'm sure there are Google employees on this and other sites, just as there are Microsoft employees here (probably even more), Apple employees here (probably less) and you know Slashdot has enough Open Source evangelists, even if it's a little less than it used to be. Besides, what is exactly the problem with Google (or any other company) trying to please the crowds? I'm a privacy advocate, so it stings me to say, that as far as delivering (decent) quality services to end-users for little-to-nothing (and unfortunately that's what people want - privacy be damned), I can't really think of any other company than Google that has done so well in the past years.

      An unfortunate truth is that not all business models flourish through open-source. And not only open-source projects give the best end product, especially when it comes to user experience (which now is more important than ever). What Google has done better than any other (evil or not) is introduce and actively develop a legion of services and solutions (some better than others) that are free / freemium to use. Google's core business - Search - will never be opened because it would destroy their business. That Google isn't really quick on opening newest Android builds (whether for security or monetary concerns) is definitely unfortunate, and I'm sure there are many points to be made against other missteps, but the simple truth is that they are no more evil than MS or Apple or [fill in large corp]. I'm sure I don't have to list to you any of their missteps to prove that point. (Though to be fair Apple's recent patent trolling is really starting to bother me, especially because they violate so many of these so-called patents themselves, but that's a different story for another day.)

      People get hung up on Google's openness, either in a too positive or too negative way. Judging by your signature, I'd say you are in the latter department. Chill, relax. The world is not coming to an end because of these companies. Your and my government (and the people that vote for them) are way ahead of them.

      --
      "This should be fun, and by fun, I mean a wholly depressing insight into the cognitive ability of some grown adults."
    18. Re:Here's What's New by Anguirel · · Score: 1

      I've done that... and only the ones I've installed and expect to regularly check for updates are doing automated internet calls. If you're referring to a pre-built machine, that's not Microsoft's fault, nor is Windows to blame. That's the individual manufacturer (e.g. Dell, HP, eMachines, etc...) that are pre-installing all sorts of trial packages and such. That's like claiming Linux is terrible OS because you bought a machine that had several rootkits, trojans, and viruses installed on it by the guy who sold it to you. It isn't the OS that's to blame here.

      If you're going to complain about such things, at least make sure you direct it at the right place.

      --
      ~Anguirel (lit. Living Star-Iron)
      QA: The art of telling someone that their baby is ugly without getting punched.
  15. As Seen on TV by JackSpratts · · Score: 1

    Google is the modern equivalent of a huge, integrated television network, perhaps what in the past might have been a combined NBC/CBS.

    It's pricey output, the things it spends its money on, from Google Maps to search to Google + to bandwidth are today's equivalent of tentpole programming like Ed Sullivan, Bonanza, The Tonight Show, Roots etc,. Its product of course, is viewers, us in other words, who are bundled and sold to advertisers in essentially the same fashion the TV networks did in the sixties.

    Surely at this point in time this can't be up for debate or even news.

    We "watch" Google all day long. Sometimes for hours, sometimes for moments. The fact that we interact a bit more with it doesn't alter the business equation or the reality of our relationship with the company.

    - js.

    1. Re:As Seen on TV by ceoyoyo · · Score: 2

      Except that for television networks you specifically had to opt into giving them information, through ratings tracking companies.

      Yes, Google's business model is just like an over-the-air TV network's. Except that Google has much more information about us, is now in charge of many or most of the communication channels we use to talk to each other, AND effectively controls much of the information we receive. So Google is kind of like the television networks, newspapers, postal service, phone company and government service branches all rolled into one. Oh, and they'd really like your medical records too, please.

    2. Re:As Seen on TV by Trepidity · · Score: 1

      Yeah, it's more problematic mostly in that they can now sell an individualized product with your specific details. Television sells an aggregate product instead. They need to know something about their demographics in order to sell you to advertisers, but they only need to know the information in aggregate, because: 1) they can't separately target different ads to different viewers, only on a per-show basis; and 2) they can't get detailed information anyway, but only samples and extrapolations from things like Nielsen viewers and telephone surveys.

    3. Re:As Seen on TV by vegaspctech · · Score: 1

      You have to opt in for Google to get any information beyond your IP address, they are in charge of many of the communication channels you use if you choose to use those they control and they effectively control much of the information that you receive through them. How does any of that make them remarkably different from News Corp., Microsoft, Verizon or the like?

      --

      Making the world a better place, one psychotic episode at a time.

    4. Re:As Seen on TV by ceoyoyo · · Score: 1

      If News Corp wants to know what I'm reading, they have to ask me. The one exception is their online subscription service, but in that case I'm paying them. Their free subscription thing (do they still do that?) is held in deep suspicion by Slashdotters (hm...) and isn't linked to all sorts of OTHER information about me, collected by other products from News Corp.

      I pay Verizon (or I would, if I were an American and had an account with them). I am their customer.

      I also pay Microsoft, except for their free online services, which you're right, are not different from Google's and should be regarded with the knowledge that they exist to get information about you and sell it to advertisers.

    5. Re:As Seen on TV by zippthorne · · Score: 1

      Television ads also provide the viewer with valuable feedback. For instance, if you find yourself enjoying a show with a lot of "free scooter" and adult diaper ads, you know that you probably should not be the one to start discussing it around a water cooler of 20-somethings....

      --
      Can you be Even More Awesome?!
  16. The product is page views! by SplatMan_DK · · Score: 2

    'I'm unaware of any company that feels responsible to their product.

    First of all that says more about him than Google. Most companies are.proud of their products.

    The end users are not the product. The product is "exposure" - page views if you will - and the end users are the suppliers of that product.

    Google, just like any other company, can't screw its suppliers without consequence.

    - Jesper

    --
    My security clearance is so high I have to kill myself if I remember I have it...
  17. Totally illegal in Canada by tomhudson · · Score: 4, Interesting

    The export of Canadian personal information outside the country is governed by PIPEDA. Google simply doesn't have the right to demand any personal info be sent to their servers outside the country's borders. This is effectively the same legislation that Germany later copied.

    Also, government-issued ID is not to be used as "identification." The social insurance card numbers are ONLY to be given to employers and government agencies, and, at your option, to your bank (unless you have an interest-bearing account) - and it doesn't have a photo. The universal medicare card, which has a photo, is also not to be used anywhere except when dealing with medical services such as hospitals and pharmacies.

    That leaves your drivers license - IF you have a drivers license. And even that is classified as "personal identifying information".

    1. Re:Totally illegal in Canada by Registered+Coward+v2 · · Score: 1

      The export of Canadian personal information outside the country is governed by PIPEDA. Google simply doesn't have the right to demand any personal info be sent to their servers outside the country's borders. This is effectively the same legislation that Germany later copied.

      True, but Google is under no obligation to provide services to people who don't provide the requested information.

      While I don'y like Google's policy, I also don't like any government dictating to a company they must provide services - if Google doesn't like CDN's rules they can leave.

      I'd be very surprised if there wasn't a caveat in the law allowing voluntarily providing the information.

      --
      I'm a consultant - I convert gibberish into cash-flow.
    2. Re:Totally illegal in Canada by tomhudson · · Score: 4, Interesting

      if Google doesn't like CDN's rules they can leave.

      Facebook was "invited" to leave if they didn't change their rules. They changed their rules. It was shortly after Canada refused to back down that the EU decided to do the same thing.

      I'd be very surprised if there wasn't a caveat in the law allowing voluntarily providing the information.

      You might want to look at "contracts of adhesion", aka "standard contracts" , "boilerplate" or "take-it-or-leave-it" contracts. The law is different (and this also applies in the US) - ALL clauses in such contracts are always to be interpreted in the other party's favor, and the party cannot give up their statutory rights.

      Google is wrong with their policy, plain and simple, and that's why there is so much push-back.

    3. Re:Totally illegal in Canada by canajin56 · · Score: 5, Interesting

      True, but Google is under no obligation to provide services to people who don't provide the requested information.

      Yes, they are. As you said, if they don't like Canada, they can kindly shutter their buildings and leave the fucking country. There are two parts to PIPEDA. The first is that a corporation cannot do ANYTHING with any information collected about a person unless that person has SIGNED a form indicating approval for that EXACT use. The second is that business cannot refuse to do business with somebody who doesn't want to "voluntarily" share personal information. You might be fine with BestBuy and such requiring (oh, sorry, you doublethink'd "require" into "mandatory request") you to turn over your email, phone number, and address in order to buy a cable, but in Canada we put a stop to that retarded practice. Stores have tried to skirt it "We need that information for our service of contacting you for recalls!" "I don't want that service" "It's mandatory!" it didn't go well for them.

      --
      ASCII stupid question, get a stupid ANSI
    4. Re:Totally illegal in Canada by Registered+Coward+v2 · · Score: 1

      True, but Google is under no obligation to provide services to people who don't provide the requested information.

      Yes, they are. As you said, if they don't like Canada, they can kindly shutter their buildings and leave the fucking country. There are two parts to PIPEDA. The first is that a corporation cannot do ANYTHING with any information collected about a person unless that person has SIGNED a form indicating approval for that EXACT use. The second is that business cannot refuse to do business with somebody who doesn't want to "voluntarily" share personal information. You might be fine with BestBuy and such requiring (oh, sorry, you doublethink'd "require" into "mandatory request") you to turn over your email, phone number, and address in order to buy a cable, but in Canada we put a stop to that retarded practice. Storer have tried to skirt it "We need that information for our service of contacting you for recalls!" "I don't want that service" "It's mandatory!" it didn't go well for them.

      And that's my point - they either comply with the law or stop providing services in CDN. If they decide to pull out, that's their choice.

      --
      I'm a consultant - I convert gibberish into cash-flow.
    5. Re:Totally illegal in Canada by Registered+Coward+v2 · · Score: 1

      if Google doesn't like CDN's rules they can leave.

      Facebook was "invited" to leave if they didn't change their rules. They changed their rules. It was shortly after Canada refused to back down that the EU decided to do the same thing.

      I'd be very surprised if there wasn't a caveat in the law allowing voluntarily providing the information.

      You might want to look at "contracts of adhesion", aka "standard contracts" , "boilerplate" or "take-it-or-leave-it" contracts. The law is different (and this also applies in the US) - ALL clauses in such contracts are always to be interpreted in the other party's favor, and the party cannot give up their statutory rights.

      Google is wrong with their policy, plain and simple, and that's why there is so much push-back.

      While I agree that Google is wrong; I don't agree with the sentiment that changing their policy is the only course of action. They can simply end providing service in CDN. I think that would be a stupid thing to do, but it is within Google's rights to decide what and where they will provide services.

      If Google decides to offer services in CDN then they must comply with CDN law - if they decide to leave then there's nothing CDN can do about it.

      The challenge, not just for Google, but for all companies, is how to deal with the non-territorial nature of data. If a company is compelled by a court to reveal information they have, even if it protected in the jurisdiction of the person whose data it is, they are in a tough spot; my guess is they give it up.

      --
      I'm a consultant - I convert gibberish into cash-flow.
    6. Re:Totally illegal in Canada by tomhudson · · Score: 1

      It's not just a question of where they store it - contracts of adhesion have severe limitations, and Google is exceeding them and hoping nobody notices and complains.

      As for myself, I had started to use my (really old) gmail account when Google+ came out, but earlier today I changed my profile back to using an email from one of my domains, partially in support of all those who could be endangered by having their identities revealed, and partially because I really don't like that something that was marketed one way (google+ as a social tool) being bat-and-switched to an "identity service."

      It's funny - Microsoft wouldn'd DARE pull this sort of crap because they've been burned so many times before, but Google does it and everyone just rolls over? No thanks! I'm more than a "product" - I'm a person. What google has to offer in exchange for what they're taking in trade really isn't worth it.

      Free email with 7 gigs of storage? Big deal - I can create 100 emails on my server tomorrow under a dozen different domains and give myself half a terabyte of storage on any one of them, and not worry that Google is building a profile to sell. YAASN ("Yet Another Anti-Social Network")? G+ is better than Facebook, but that's the epitome of "damning with faint praise." I mean really - it's been a while they've promised basic stuff like threading, and it's nowhere in sight. What a bunch of over-hyped crap.

    7. Re:Totally illegal in Canada by tomhudson · · Score: 1

      They're certainly free to leave. Nothing requires them to stay - and eventually (within the next decade or two) it won't matter because the network (and the various clients + their ability to exchange data) will have enough smarts that search will be dead (as will "social media" in general).

      To the extent that ALL Internet companies like Facebook (with their "Like" button) are illegally tracking people from site to site, they're just going to create more pushback. Eventually, contrary to Google's Eric Schmidt, people WILL get fed up and create alternatives, and be willing to pay a (very nominal, very micro-payment) fee for ensuring their own privacy and an ad-free experience.

    8. Re:Totally illegal in Canada by tomhudson · · Score: 1

      Not sure about the legality of this but a few years ago I worked for Videotron which is one of the two major tv/internet/phone providers in Quebec. They will NOT rent you a cable modem without getting your social insurance number. You can decline but they also can decline to rent you the device.

      They rented me mine without it. And no, they cannot decline if you refuse. You just have to know AND assert your rights.

  18. Re:I think what *slashdotters* don't understand of by Rizimar · · Score: 1

    Even despite the fact that it isn't. What's the point?

  19. Re:Of course it's free by GameboyRMH · · Score: 1

    If cows had money they'd probably give it a try.

    --
    "When information is power, privacy is freedom" - Jah-Wren Ryel
  20. What does that have to do with real names? by orgelspieler · · Score: 2

    Advertisers don't care what your name is as long as they know what you are likely to buy. If my name is Joe Schmoe that tells them nothing more about my buying habits. Now, if they can say my handle is twerpmeister67 on hamstersrock.com, then they have something they can sell to advertisers. Petsmart can try to sell me corn cob bedding, or whatever.

    Better yet, let people have multiple handles, just like they do already. Tying those together, but allowing them to be separate in the consumers mind would be the best of both worlds. That way people can surf around however they want (e.g. Justin Bieber fansites) and not be worried about being outed as some kind of weirdo later. Say your trying to play video games with your kids or something. You don't want unsavory Bieber adverts popping up when you're looking for a fun game of Dinowaurs. Instead, you want to see advertisements for more dinosaur stuff or similar games.

    It really seems like Google is missing the mark here. Advertisers, too. But honestly, I'm not that surprised.

  21. That would make users the VENDORS by mysidia · · Score: 1

    As a prospective vendor of Google, I would like to dictate my terms for delivery of the product. Namely (1) my private information is not part of the deal, Google's not to be allowed to sell or redistribute that further without my permission, and (2) I demand to be fairly compensated in the form of payment in cash from Google to provide the product of eyes to view customers' AdWords ad.

    1. Re:That would make users the VENDORS by andydread · · Score: 1

      Its very easy. Just don't use ANY of Google's. Plain and simple. Or maybe you could PAY Google for the use of their services. How bout that?

  22. Can we please stop this meme? by artor3 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    "You are the product! Ooga-booga-booga!!1"

    It's just a sound-byte meant to whip you into an outrage by equivocating advertising with slavery.

    Company X provides a product.
    You, the customer, pay for it with tiny portions of your time.
    Company X then sells those bits of time to other companies.

    You are not being sold. You are willingly looking at a few ads in exchange for a product. I know outrage feels good. It's like a drug. But find something real to be outraged over.

    1. Re:Can we please stop this meme? by grumling · · Score: 2

      GOOGLE PLUS IS PEOPLE!

      --
      "Well, good luck finding a judge that doesn't run a bestiality site."
    2. Re:Can we please stop this meme? by Monkey-Man2000 · · Score: 2

      You are not being sold. You are willingly looking at a few ads in exchange for a product. I know outrage feels good. It's like a drug. But find something real to be outraged over.

      I don't mind looking at a few ads, or even targeted ads. But when they target them based on un-anonymized personal interests/activities and who people know and sell that info to advertisers, that's basically selling a 'named' person's social life.

      --
      This post was generated by a Cadre of Uber Monkeys for Monkey-Man2000 (603495).
    3. Re:Can we please stop this meme? by andydread · · Score: 2, Interesting

      I makes me wonder who is really behind this "You are the product" theme that is recently appearing on blogs and discussion groups. We know there are some unscrupulous entities that are very efficient at spreading false outrage about their competitors behind the scenes. I remember a particular entity that was doing a similar thing with the "ZOMG Open Source offers no indemnity" meme. That same entity was also responsible for rounding up competitors of Google to file antitrust complaints against Google and is currently running an ad campaign attempting to scare Gmail users that the big bad Google is reading their email. Now that entity has sued Android device manufacturers claiming "if you use our product then we "Indemnify" you from lawsuits. The open source product does not offer indemnity see? we are suing them and they have to defend themselves." I think a very sleezy entity is quite possibly behind this.

    4. Re:Can we please stop this meme? by RyuuzakiTetsuya · · Score: 1

      No.

      In Google's case, it goes into everything they do. Including GoogleTV and Android. Which is pretty fucking crass.

      If it weren't for GTV and Android doing this, I'd probably be OK with it.

      --
      Non impediti ratione cogitationus.
    5. Re:Can we please stop this meme? by ookabooka · · Score: 1

      ookabooka. It's just ookabooka, no caps/hyphens.

      --
      If you are about to mod me down, keep in mind that this post was most likely sarcastic.
    6. Re:Can we please stop this meme? by Graymalkin · · Score: 2

      Looking at ads is not the problem with Google's policies. They're not just showing you ads but tracking every move you make on the Internet. They not only have the ability but correlate that data with search history and browsing patterns. They scan through all of your email and correlate all of that data with the search and traffic data.

      So you're not just looking at ads but having your behavior and history analyzed. Google is a publicly traded company and has been charged by their investors to maximize profit. They will eventually sell your personalized data. Insurance companies, credit rating agencies, and employee vetting companies would love to have that data. Searching for information about diabetes or browsing WebMD? Your health insurance rates shoot up. Search for porn a little too often? You fail a background check.

      --
      I'm a loner Dottie, a Rebel.
    7. Re:Can we please stop this meme? by damian2k · · Score: 1

      facebook, microsoft, yahoo, google ... they all issue targeted ads using any snippet of personal information they can glean from you or your browsing habits. Its been this way since the start of the internet (cookies). At least google gives you some tools such as chrome's "incognito" feature. In my mind facebook is far worse in this regard, and not many people cared that much when they started issueing targeted ads targeted to your relationship status, sex, location etc.

    8. Re:Can we please stop this meme? by randomsearch · · Score: 1

      Completely agree with artor3.

      You are NOT the product! In fact, your time is not even the product.

      Google has lots of products, but its dominant product (in terms of revenue) is the service of advertising, which it sells to companies and other organisations. To be precise, it mostly sells screen real-estate to advertisers. So it sells part of the webpage (etc) that you see to an advertiser. That's it.

      I don't understand why this meme has come about. Can anyone provide insight into this? Is it because people who like "free software" (linux fanboys) don't agree with the advertising-funded business model? Is it because people who like purchase-funded software (mac fanboys) don't like the advertising-funded model? I like, use and rely on free software, and I own a Mac, and I just don't get what has gone wrong with the world-view of so many people.

      FFS it's not even like Google's advertising is the most annoying that's around. I tend not to notice it and on occasion even find it useful!

      Everyone understands the concept of advertising, and there are alternatives if you'd like to use them. Install Adblock if you must, just please stop spouting this nonsense.

      RS

    9. Re:Can we please stop this meme? by Monkey-Man2000 · · Score: 1

      Then, by all means, feel free to not use the service.

      I don't and won't, but it's good for ignorant people to learn about Google's practices because I don't think it would be an uncommon sentiment.

      --
      This post was generated by a Cadre of Uber Monkeys for Monkey-Man2000 (603495).
  23. Rather than add mod points.. by Kupfernigk · · Score: 5, Informative
    Rachel, I would like to give you a mod point, but I'd like to make a philosophical point if I may, and I can't do both.

    Philo T Farnsworth invented US television, which is that commercial stuff in which the viewers are the sweetcorn, the advertisers are the buyers, and the TV company is the farmer. John Logie Baird invented British television in which the taxpayer is the customer, pays directly for the product, and elects politicians to keep an eye on things. That's quite different, as well as being a whole lot better.

    --
    From scarped cliff or quarried stone she cries "A thousand types are gone, I care for nothing, no not one."
    1. Re:Rather than add mod points.. by JasterBobaMereel · · Score: 1

      John Logie Baird - Invented a commercial system we don't use

      Philo T Farnsworth - Invented a commercial system we don't use

      The modern system was invented by several people using ideas (stolen) from both the above, and applied to both free to air, and commercial stations, based upon and run by the Radio broadcasters of the time all of who used the same models of you are the product ...

      By the way British TV is a mixture of commercial and the BBC Corporation (Government funded, but not government run)... and you are still the product even then just not one who pays to be the product ...

      --
      Puteulanus fenestra mortis
    2. Re:Rather than add mod points.. by LordLimecat · · Score: 1

      John Logie Baird invented British television in which the taxpayer is the customer, pays directly for the product, and elects politicians to keep an eye on things. That's quite different, as well as being a whole lot better.

      Im sorry, I disagree-- why should I and those I live with have to pay for others to watch TV? What if we really dont want to watch it?

    3. Re:Rather than add mod points.. by plasm4 · · Score: 5, Insightful

      For the same reasons you pay for a fire department, military equipment, soldiers, public education, roads, bridges, national parks, scientific research, and a thousand other things. At least with the BBC if you haven't got a TV you don't pay the license fee. It's nice to have tv programming that doesn't have to cater to the lowest common denominator.

    4. Re:Rather than add mod points.. by Unkyjar · · Score: 1

      So you'd rather they just give the TV stations tax breaks? Because if you don't go with the obvious method of funding, that and many more obfuscated methods will be used.

    5. Re:Rather than add mod points.. by Brannoncyll · · Score: 1

      Much as I love the BBC, I find the TV Licensing Fee to be a particularly obnoxious way of collecting the money.

      As soon as you start living away from home, in college dorms for example, you start getting bombarded with threatening letters stating that you have not paid your TV Licensing Fee, and that their officers regularly make sweeps with their equipment to check for unlicensed viewing. I never owned a TV, but I kept receiving these letters, which kept getting more and more threatening, promising exorbitant fines and more.

      Sometimes they resort to very dirty tactics. I had a friend who tried to skip paying the fee. One day one of their agents comes to the door and gives her the spiel about unlicensed TV viewing. He says that if she does not own a TV she should sign the document he is holding. She foolishly signs without reading the document fully. It later turns out that she was signing a document stating that she did own a TV, and got slapped with a fine. Personally I would have taken the bastards to court over that, but she decided the fine was not large enough to warrant the hassle of going through the courts. Smells to me like the tactics the MAFIAA would use!

      These bullying tactics quickly soured me towards the whole public television idea.

    6. Re:Rather than add mod points.. by spasm · · Score: 1

      Although the British system tends to produce television that people think they want rather than what it turns out they actually want. When all you care about is the number of eyeballs you can deliver to advertisers, you tend to get extremely creative in attracting attention. Not that this is necessarily a good thing - most of the time it's a race to the bottom. Sometimes, however, it can produce fascinating things..

    7. Re:Rather than add mod points.. by LordLimecat · · Score: 1

      Except that the role of government has ALWAYS included things like "making sure our citizens dont get killed". Defense, roads, etc have long (ie, back to Rome at least) been government roles.

      National parks and scientific research less so-- I think the governments role in those should be less (im not clear on why the Fed needs to own 90% of Nevada for example).

      TV I think not at all. There is very little in the way of compelling reasons for why that is the government's place to provide, or for how it qualifies as a necessity (for the record, we dont have TV service).

    8. Re:Rather than add mod points.. by LordLimecat · · Score: 1

      Sounds like awful tactics, and I am sorry your friend had to deal with that. However, you know how you prevent bad people from using those bad tactics?

      You read things before signing them.

    9. Re:Rather than add mod points.. by Isaac+Remuant · · Score: 1

      Oh, you'll love Argentina then, where you, as a citizen, have to fund the state propaganda channel and pay the license to broadcast futbol (soccer) for everyone in a country with huge margins of poverty.

      She's getting re-elected soon. The displayed propaganda during half-time is working wonders and that's only one of a huge number of demagogic tactics.

      --
      "Science can amuse and fascinate us all, but it is engineering that changes the world. " - Asimov.
    10. Re:Rather than add mod points.. by tehcyder · · Score: 1

      John Logie Baird invented British television in which the taxpayer is the customer, pays directly for the product, and elects politicians to keep an eye on things. That's quite different, as well as being a whole lot better.

      Im sorry, I disagree-- why should I and those I live with have to pay for others to watch TV? What if we really dont want to watch it?

      Ah yes, the classic selfish "I don't have children so why should any of my taxes pay for education" argument. Just fuck off and live on a desert island somewhere and leave civilisation to the rest of us.

      --
      To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it
    11. Re:Rather than add mod points.. by tehcyder · · Score: 1

      Sounds like awful tactics, and I am sorry your friend had to deal with that. However, you know how you prevent bad people from using those bad tactics?

      You read things before signing them.

      I find it pretty hard to sympathise with a "friend" (i.e. presumably the GPP) who is intelligent enough to get to college but fucking stupid enough to sign a statement without reading it.

      The point about the BBC is that if you don't watch TV you don't need to pay the licence fee, so if you genuinely don't have a TV you have nothing to worry about. Most people who moan about the licence fee do so while sitting in front of £1000 worth of TV, DVD and satellite kit..

      --
      To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it
    12. Re:Rather than add mod points.. by Brannoncyll · · Score: 1

      I feel like I need to defend myself against your assumptions that I was the person who signed the statement. I don't and never have owned a TV and always read things before I sign them. In this case the friend really was a friend; a house-mate of my ex-girlfriend in fact.

    13. Re:Rather than add mod points.. by LordLimecat · · Score: 1

      What if I have a 52" tv so that I can watch netflix and the occasional DVD (which is in fact the case)? Or to play my Wii? Do I now have to pay for a licensing fee?

      If not, im not really seeing the difference between that and the current system (where only those who get cable tv, pay for it), except that in your scenario the government is running it. And why exactly would I want a fixed price so that what little competition in the TV space there is is rendered moot?

    14. Re:Rather than add mod points.. by LordLimecat · · Score: 1

      I think that was understood. As I said, my sympathies to that person, they certainly dont deserve to be scammed, but they could have exercised some diligence and common sense and avoided the whole issue.

      I dont want to blame the victim so to speak, but these tactics are only used when and if they will work; the way we prevent this type of fraud is for people to pay closer attention to what they sign.

    15. Re:Rather than add mod points.. by LordLimecat · · Score: 1

      Are you seriously comparing access to TV with education? Education is only barely acceptable-- the benefits of an educated society are so huge that they warrant the government making everyone pay for it. The same CANNOT be said for TV, and I would argue that a large portion of our country would be better off watching less-- though they are of course to pay for it on their own dollar.

      Your argument isnt really that good, but it sounds good when you wield it in various arguments. Why not make the same statement about gov't healthcare? Or gov't subsidized cars (cars are a heck of a lot more reasonable than TVs, tbqh)? Or gov't subsidized computers?

      The problem is that NONE of these are really government roles, and go pretty squarely against how things were supposed to happen in the US. Despite what Obama and the dem congress may think (and Im sure they really believe in their cause), the constitution doesnt endorse a gigantic government that subsidizes every aspect of its citizens lives-- thats not what freedom means, its not the intent of the 9th and 10th amendments, and its not whats laid out in the 7 articles of the constitution.

      Education gets a pass (this is IMHO--and im sure many would disagree with me) ONLY because of the welfare clause and because of the enormous benefit that comes with an educated population.

    16. Re:Rather than add mod points.. by plasm4 · · Score: 1

      Even in Rome the government paid for both entertainment and the distribution of news, but tradition isn't a valid argument neither for or against.

      You don't agree where the line has been drawn as to what the role of the governments role, I don't agree either to be honest. But I believe the BBC works well and does a good job and provides a good return for the money invested, so why get rid of it on ideological reasons?

    17. Re:Rather than add mod points.. by LordLimecat · · Score: 1

      Because I think the governments role and the lines that need to be drawn should be done so on the basis of "is it necessary or urgent, and is it something the government is uniquely able to do".

      With TV, I think the answers are clearly "No, no, and No".

    18. Re:Rather than add mod points.. by plasm4 · · Score: 1

      Right, so you would eliminate an institution that functions well purely on an ideological basis? What would the benefits be? That isn't very different from the forced nationalisation of private companies just for ideological reasons. Wouldn't it be better to take a practical approach to issues?

    19. Re:Rather than add mod points.. by LordLimecat · · Score: 1

      Not when there is a very clear answer in the documents that grant our government its authority. Its not a far step from "we can ignore the 9th and 10th amendments" to "what 1st and 2nd amendments?" If this was something we really wanted to change, an amendment would be the proper way, expanding what "general welfare" means.

    20. Re:Rather than add mod points.. by plasm4 · · Score: 1

      Well I wasn't arguing that an equivalent to the BBC should be created in the US, but yeah other than that I agree. At the same time it's nice that other countries have different systems. No one is perfect and it's nice to observe what seems to work and what doesn't.

  24. Re:Nothing new - but corrupt all the same by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    The fact that something happens and is known, by those who make the effort to think about it, to happen does not make it reasonable, fair or acceptable.

    The fact that there are other companies which do even worse things doesn't make it good either. Nor does it matter that the evil company has a slogan which implies that it will do no evil, if they still do evil.

    Comments like this, "You don't have to use Google if you don't want to." are breathtakingly dumb (surely you're just trolling? mensababe?). When use of a service makes it so much easier to carry out business than the old way, people will tend to migrate to it. If use of all the rival services incur much the same penalty in the form of your data being packaged and sold, then the people do not have a choice. They are forced to use the service - or live in a cave.

    Why not set up a rival business providing the same service but without the nefarious bits? Because nobody would finance it because the profits would be so much smaller when the rival companies are able to collect and package the highly profitable user data. For it to become viable the collection of user data has to be restricted by law.

    That is where governments should step in and mandate that the collection of user data be separated from payment for the service. If a user signs up the company should not be able to tie that contract in to an agreement to give up personal data too.

    Governments don't step in because they are in the pockets of big business. They too want to drive up revenue because each transaction means more money for the government and more funding for grandiose schemes.

  25. TANSTAAFL by Hungus · · Score: 1

    Repeat after me: There ain't no such thing as a free lunch

    --
    Bad Panda! No Bamboo for you! In matters of importance ACs will not be responded to. Want to say something critical,OK
    1. Re:TANSTAAFL by Ashriel · · Score: 1

      I have had many free lunches. Had one just the other week.

  26. Spare us your stupidity.. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

    You don't have to use Google if you don't want to.

    Yeah and you can email your resume in .tex format for jobs too because you hate Microsoft and Adobe. If the only way you can successfully advertise your product online is through advertising companies like Google, then you have little "choice". I suppose a child like you has to learn about lock-in caused by network effects. Don't worry you can leave the thinking to others if it hurts your brain.

    1. Re:Spare us your stupidity.. by Oligonicella · · Score: 1

      "If the only way you can successfully advertise..."

      It's not, therefore you have "choice". I don't use their search engine and I don't use any of their other products and never have. Apparently my ability to wander life unimpeded by my lack of "choices" is greater than yours.

      I would instead suppose that a child like you has to learn that economics as taught in a sociology class doesn't actually work.

      "lock-in caused by network effects".... That was a tell.

    2. Re:Spare us your stupidity.. by delinear · · Score: 1

      You appear to have completely missed the point. This is about the end user having the ability to walk away from Google, not the advertiser. The point is, if Google abuse their position in terms of their users, even though the users aren't the customers in a traditional sense, they risk driving people away and they'll have less "product" (a smaller userbase) to sell to the advertisers. The advertisers, meanwhile, will just go and do business with whoever hasn't alienated their user base. Maybe you need to leave the thinking to others :)

    3. Re:Spare us your stupidity.. by dudpixel · · Score: 1

      You have the choice not to advertise. Sure, your business might not survive but its still a choice.

      Its not illegal to be a monopoly. Its only lock-in if you're not allowed to advertise elsewhere.

      What you're saying is if you want to be successful you need to advertise and if you want to advertise effectively, it needs to be on Google. I dont see a problem with that. If Google then treat you poorly you might have a case, but I've used Adwords before and its pretty easy to use.

      I dont think Google are acting illegally just by being the biggest. If your company was incredibly successful and ended up owning 90% of the market, would you stop doing business so that your competitors could catch up? is it illegal to be that successful? of course not!

      Maybe you do have a good reason to accuse Google of illegality - feel free to post it.

      --
      This seemed like a reasonable sig at the time.
    4. Re:Spare us your stupidity.. by dudpixel · · Score: 1

      No sorry, you're wrong. There's nothing illegal about being a monopoly. Nothing. Its only when you use that monopoly in ways that the law says you cant.

      With IE, you weren't allowed to remove it.
      Microsoft also used their market power to give IE away for free, which almost put the others out of business. The lawsuit was from competing products, not microsoft's customers. So the equivalent in this case would be other advertising/search companies complaining.

      The other problem is that search/advertising IS Google's market. They're not using some other market to promote search illegally or anti-competitively. That is their only real market.

      Also, Microsoft certainly DID stop vendors using other software. If a vendor sold linux, then they lost the right to sell windows.

      Google does none of this.

      The only way Google would be illegal in the same way is if they offered free advertising in order to send their competition broke. But they dont - if anything, Google is the most expensive. I just dont see what the complaint is.

      Google have the biggest market only because so many people choose to use Google for search. Any one of those people could choose Bing instead, and if they all chose Bing, then Google's market share would be effectively 0.

      Google could abuse their monopoly by marketing their own products above everyone else's - and then refusing to advertise anything that competes with them...and there are claims of this - which is probably the only claim I've ever heard against Google that actually could carry some weight. As yet though, it still has not been proven true in a court of law...so its merely speculation at this point in time.

      --
      This seemed like a reasonable sig at the time.
  27. Google is ad-supported media by ZipK · · Score: 1

    This is no different than commercial radio or television. A station owner drafts programming that will attract a demographic that's desirable to a chosen set of advertisers. The radio listeners or television viewers are a unit of exchange between the station and the advertisers. Users are fodder, not customers.

  28. Re:Hmmm. MS, Apple, Yahoo, CC companies, FB, etc by ninetyninebottles · · Score: 1

    ALL are targeting us. They are all selling to us and our information. Google does sell access to us. However, you can not get specific information about us. OTH, I CAN go to MS or Apple and get any of our information.

    Hmm, I thought Apple's talks with publishers were hung for quite a while because Apple refused to give them the credit card and personal details of people making purchases. When does Apple sell your information and to whom?

    That said, I agree that your distinction is important. Personally, I rather prefer that Google sells access to me in a targeted way as it means the ads that do make their way to me are at least moderately tailored to things of interest to me.

  29. This is why I trust Microsoft by Eirenarch · · Score: 1

    This is precisely why I trust Microsoft (and other companies that want my money) and not Google. Microsoft have something to lose. They want my money for certain product and they will want my money for the next version of the product. It is in their best interest to keep me happy and not betray my trust because if they do they go out of business. With Google if they don't betray my trust they go out of business anyway because they betray the trust of their customers.

    1. Re:This is why I trust Microsoft by Flipao · · Score: 1

      I think you got that backwards, if Google lose your trust the competition is a click away. Switching OS, computer, office package, etc.. is out of the question for the average user. Not to mention the absolute fortune it’d cost a business to move away from a MS Exchange/AD/Sharepoint setup.

      Microsoft have users by the balls and they'll do whatever it takes to keep it that way. They did it before and were found guilty by a court of law, they'd gladly do it again.

  30. No, privacy freaks don't understand by SmallFurryCreature · · Score: 1, Insightful

    I do NOT care! I know I am a product to google and radio station and tv channels and I don't care because I don't use them.

    Do you think slashdot is any different? Samzenpus, were does your salary come from? Readers or advertisers? Anything that sells more views is a go right? That is why headlines are often widely inaccurate and story angled chosen to raise the maximum ire so there will be lots of ads impressions.

    Google isn't making a soap box it isn't making the next facebook, it has seen linkedin and liked it and thought it could do more with it. I got several gmail accounts, including some totally fake ones and some real ones. I am not intrested in google+ because frankly my live ain't intresting enough to share. Did a massive dump in the toilet, posted on slashdot, that is about it for today...or was it the other way around.

    Some nutters think that Google owes them a public forum on which they should be able to say whatever they want, provide zero revenue for Google, annoy Googles paying customers at will and basically be complete an utter assholes... well, silly Google for not wanting to do that.

    If you care so much about some guy in Syria, run your own website that allows free speech. Enjoy the gigantic bill and zero income. Oh, your bleeding heart doesn't extend to your wallet? How un-expected.

    Google+ is a social site with real id's because that is what google has decided. Don't like it, don't use it. There are plenty of sites that require real data and plenty that don't. Make a choice and stop trying to convince everyone that YOUR choice is the right one and they are so wrong for thinking different. I almost feel like signing up for google+ now just to spite the privacy freaks... but nobody invited me yet... waaaaaaaah!

    --

    MMO Quests are like orgasms:

    You may solo them, I prefer them in a group.

  31. Re:Google is more evil than the NBC/ABC/CBS ever w by bmo · · Score: 1

    If he's wrong then why the real names policy?

    TV deals in aggregate statistics. It's done so for decades.

    Nailing it down to individuals with names is not what TV has done /at all/. One is more evil than the other. If you don't understand this, you're a retard.

    --
    BMO

  32. credibility? by grumling · · Score: 1

    The guy writes an article slamming Google, but right at the top of the page is a +1 button.

    Don't read the article! He's turning you into a product!

    --
    "Well, good luck finding a judge that doesn't run a bestiality site."
  33. Amazon's Real Names (tm) by macraig · · Score: 1

    Amazon has had an even more strict Real Name feature, with respect to product reviews at least, for some time now. Why isn't there a bigger outcry about that, I wonder? I wouldn't be at all surprised to hear later that the Google+ identity system is intended for exactly the same purpose, to "add value" to consumer product reviews. Google isn't doing it right, whatever the intention.

  34. A rose, by any other name by Chelloveck · · Score: 1

    Yeah, and I don't want to be just a "resource" to my employer either. Yet the HR department won that one ages ago.

    --
    Chelloveck
    I give up on debugging. From now on, SIGSEGV is a feature.
  35. hahaha by drinkypoo · · Score: 1

    Uh no. People selling shit don't need your full identity. If google is selling your identity to anyone, it's government, or someone who would be the government. People selling shit only need to know if you're the same guy who had these interests yesterday so they can pitch you the same shit today.

    --
    "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
  36. For some reason I am reminded of the Prisoner by Minter92 · · Score: 1

    I am not a product I am a free man. Ok google you are making money of me , then I want my cut. I think 80% of every dollar you make sounds fair. Oh and don't try and tell me your "free" products are my payment because those are making you money not costing.
    Google is evil.

    1. Re:For some reason I am reminded of the Prisoner by ninetyninebottles · · Score: 1

      Ok google you are making money of me , then I want my cut. I think 80% of every dollar you make sounds fair. Oh and don't try and tell me your "free" products are my payment because those are making you money not costing.

      You seem a little unclear on the concept. Google offers services so they can serve ads. If you want to use the services, you get the ads. If you don't want the ads, don't use the services. It is pretty simple. The services Google runs cost them money, which is recouped by serving ads. The services are your cut and if you don't like the cut, go somewhere else and pay for the services without ads.

    2. Re:For some reason I am reminded of the Prisoner by FhnuZoag · · Score: 1

      You might ask yourself, who are Slashdot's customers? What's its product? Well, surely its customers are those advertisers you see at the top of the page, and the product they are selling is the loving attention of Slashdot readers via comments like this one.

    3. Re:For some reason I am reminded of the Prisoner by gmhowell · · Score: 1

      Yeah, except that on the Prisoner, everyone went around with an alias, Number 6.

      --
      Jesus was all right but his disciples were thick and ordinary. -John Lennon
  37. Re:Hmmm. MS, Apple, Yahoo, CC companies, FB, etc by ninetyninebottles · · Score: 1

    Apple wanted money for that information. They re-sell that info. From their POV, that is giving away an extra product.

    A Google search for "Apple sells subscriber data" yields only hits about Apple refusing to sell data. Citation please.

  38. To any site with advertisers you are the product by Flipao · · Score: 1

    That's how they make money, I don't see any search engines out there charging you money to find stuff, someone else has to pay for it. Bloody astroturders.

  39. Spotted ! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Spotted another Google cheerleader. Cool ! Wonder how many will come out today..

  40. For those who don't know. by kurt555gs · · Score: 1

    Apple = evil
    Google = good
    Microsoft = evil
    Linux = good

    There. You can't tell the players without a score card.

    --
    * Carthago Delenda Est *
  41. Next Chapter Please by retroworks · · Score: 1

    In chapter 1, we access free content, and we enjoy it. In chapter 2, we are warned ("ooga-booga-booga", to quote artor3) that we have given up something for the lunch, and that we are at risk of ... from the summary, something about someone in Syria using my browser cookies to do something on the world stage. I'm on the edge of my seat. Now, let's see something besides foreshadowing of evil, this tinfoil hat is getting uncomfortable.

    Perhaps the point is that very very large herds are prone to attacks on individuals, well I think we buffalo are aware of that. Someone could take the time to learn about me and use my browser cookies. But that's one-on-one risk, not a threat to Syria, and the herd has long ago accepted that this is the price of grazing in the prairie (or has evolved into a mountain goat).

    --
    Gently reply
  42. Re:Google is more evil than the NBC/ABC/CBS ever w by andydread · · Score: 1

    Apparently this is what some of the cable companies do with their on-demand. Track what uses watch then target them with personalized ads. And in this case you are paying cable companies for the privilege of getting targed ads.

  43. Responsible to product by Culture20 · · Score: 1

    I know small companies that feel responsible to their product. Artists often feel that responsibility too. Big corporations? Not so much.

  44. I AM A PRODUCT by rim_namor · · Score: 1

    I am a product, come on, sell me. I want to be sold, but I also want to be packaged better. What is this am I wearing right now? Have you SEEN this shit? I need some better wrappers, I need shoes. Some teeth would be nice. The left eye is off a bit, well it's glass, it's all I got. The left leg is shorter and the right arm has 2 elbows, but I am good otherwise. A few pains in the stomach in different areas and the back has too many... fish scales. Otherwise I am good. Oh, if anybody saw my defibrillator, can I have it back please? I can't continue for more than 10 minutes without using it, and it's been almost 9 minutes now. The nails on the left foot... let's just say I lost my industrial strength wire-cutter. So come on, Google, I need a few things fixed before you can really seriously sell me as a product, otherwise it's false advertising. Oh, shoot, crapped myself again. It's alright, just need to change the diaper. Brb.

    1. Re:I AM A PRODUCT by poofmeisterp · · Score: 1

      .....Oh, shoot, crapped myself again. It's alright, just need to change the diaper. Brb.

      This person, as well as 452,194 others that use Slashdot.org, use "Brb" with a period after it instead of the 1,932,993 users that prefer "BRB" with no period.

      Who wants to buy this along with data on capitalization habits and ordered numeric list usage-in-comment statistics?
       
      /snark :>

  45. Humor bypass by Kupfernigk · · Score: 1
    I know it isn't a joke if you have to explain it, but it was partly a joke. The BBC with its mission to educate and to inform preceded television. However, I was serious in contrasting the BBC with commercial broadcasting.

    To reduce the longwindedness of my posts I removed some remarks about the Murdoch family and their hatred of the BBC. I will restore them in summary. That the Murdochs hate the BBC is sufficient justification for its existence.

    --
    From scarped cliff or quarried stone she cries "A thousand types are gone, I care for nothing, no not one."
    1. Re:Humor bypass by JasterBobaMereel · · Score: 2

      The fact that the Murdochs hate the BBC means the BBC is doing it's job ...

      The BBC is the reason the commercial companies have to actually produce quality programs themselves, and why they have to space adverts out, unlike the US where the Advertisers rule ...(I was amazed the first time I saw American Football, the number of Ad breaks was astounding, a Football (Soccer) game over here is an unbroken 45 minutes of viewing without an ad break)

      --
      Puteulanus fenestra mortis
  46. Indeed by Kupfernigk · · Score: 2

    People without children pay towards the public education system. I live in an area which has had no recorded crime in two years, but I pay for the police. As the great Harvard jurist Oliver Wendell Holmes observed, taxes pay for civilisation.

    --
    From scarped cliff or quarried stone she cries "A thousand types are gone, I care for nothing, no not one."
  47. Re:Google is more evil than the NBC/ABC/CBS ever w by Opportunist · · Score: 1

    Defend? If that's the impression you get, you read that wrong. I didn't want to "elevate" Google to the level of the TV networks. I wanted to express that they're just as evil as Google, they just lack the means to have the same impact. Google is not "more evil" than them, they just have the better tools.

    Was the US "more evil" than the USSR in WW2 because they used atomic bombs? Hell no. If the USSR had The Bomb back then, sure as hell they would've dropped it.

    --
    We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
  48. Re:Google is more evil than the NBC/ABC/CBS ever w by delinear · · Score: 1

    He didn't say they're not evil, he said they're no more evil than most other companies. Lots of companies have proven that as soon as they're in a position of power, they're happy to abuse that power to further their goals. That doesn't mean the guy without a gun is less evil than the guy with, just that he lacks the tools to do as much damage.

  49. Gee, CUSTOMERS = THOSE WHO PAY by neurocutie · · Score: 1

    Those who complain about being "the product", 1) have a choice not to be the product simply by stop using the services, 2) can be a bona fide customer, by definition, simply by starting to pay services. Where is the mystery or unfairness here?

    1. Re:Gee, CUSTOMERS = THOSE WHO PAY by poofmeisterp · · Score: 1

      Those who complain about being "the product", 1) have a choice not to be the product simply by stop using the services, 2) can be a bona fide customer, by definition, simply by starting to pay services. Where is the mystery or unfairness here?

      ....finding those services that offer what you're looking for that DON'T also spew ads all over your paid-access product.

      When I say "finding", I mean searching for it (any search engine will do) and finding it among all of the advertised crap that appears to be one-and-the-same. Do you have enough time in the day? Do you have enough time and money to "try" each one and see the true product? If not, do you have the time and patience to deal with the ads and skewed (based on payment) data to try and get valid reviews? It's a 10-step process that is laden with extra steps that defy other steps and support others, which get in the way of some but not the others..... I'm rambling in that last sentence because that's exactly what I have to deal with when trying to find something I want to pay for that isn't crap in and of itself.

      That's where *I* have a problem with it. It's not unfair; it's unbeatable..... or so they want it to be.

  50. Google is squishy soft on business identity by Animats · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Schmidt is insistent that Google has the right to know who their users are. On the other hand, Google doesn't do proper due diligence on their customers, the ones who buy ads. That just cost them a $500 million fine to the Department of Justice for running phony pharmaceutical ads. (Those supposed "Canadian pharmacies" often aren't real pharmacies at all, and many are not in Canada. DOJ went after Google because an investigation into some Mexican drug dealer was also running an offshore pharmacy.)

    Because of Google's "we don't care who you are" policy about advertisers, Google has become the advertising system for a wide range of scams: typosquatting, adware, ads for free stuff that's not free, ads for counterfeit software, and mortgage modification scams. Prof. Benjamin Edelman at the Harvard Business School estimates that Google makes about $25 million a year from ads for spyware and adware, about $6 million a year from ads for "credit repair" scams, and about $100 million a year by allowing competing trademarks as search keywords (that last is being litigated.)

    Most of those scams depend on advertiser anonymity. Business aren't entitled to privacy. Even in the European Union, which has privacy rights for individuals, businesses don't get that right. The European Directive on Electronic Commerce is very clear about that. Google has the right to demand proof of business identity from advertisers, and to demand that the advertiser disclose the actual name and address from which the business is conducted on their web site. Google doesn't do this, which makes Google the scammer's friend, and in some cases, as they just discovered expensively, an accomplice to criminal activity.

    Google claimed to the DOJ that they cleaned up their act on drug ads. Let's see. Search for "no prescription diet pills". See a Google ad for "Phentremine 37.5 mg HCL - As low as $30. Free Shipping. www.phentreminediet.com No subscriptions, or hidden cost.". There it is, right at the top of the page, in prime position, a drug ad run by Google. This is a fake drug scam site. It's a form of drug typosquatting; the real drug is spelled "phentermine". The site has a Google Checkout seal (which may be fake) and a BBBonline seal (which is fake). Yet Google is running that ad.

    Prof. Edelman says it better than I can: "I have long doubted Google's claims of innocence. For one, Google has an obvious incentive to allow deceptive and unlawful ads: each extra ad means extra revenue -- an ad in lieu of white space, or an extra competitor encouraging other advertisers to bid that much higher. Furthermore, unlawful and deceptive ads have been widespread; I found dozens in just a few hours of work. Meanwhile, it's hard to reconcile Google's engineering strength -- capably indexing billions of pages and tabulating billions of links -- with the company's supposed inability to identify new advertisements mentioning or targeting a few dozen terms known to deceive consumers. From these facts, I could only suspect what the DOJ investigation now confirms: Unlawful ads persist at Google not just because advertisers seek to be listed, but also because Google intentionally lets them stay and even offers them special assistance."

    1. Re:Google is squishy soft on business identity by zippthorne · · Score: 1

      and about $100 million a year by allowing competing trademarks as search keywords (that last is being litigated.)

      Wait.. what's wrong with this one?

      --
      Can you be Even More Awesome?!
    2. Re:Google is squishy soft on business identity by doesnothingwell · · Score: 1

      Because of Google's "we don't care who you are" policy about advertisers, ... Most of those scams depend on advertiser anonymity.

      Product fights back: If you want my privacy gone, expect to give up your's. Every officer's name of every company responsible should be on every ad. It would be fun to make a top 500 list of ad douche bags. Maybe publish their fb likes, home address, bank balances, children's names, hell its only their privacy.

      --
      They can have my command prompt when they pry it from my cold dead fingers.
    3. Re:Google is squishy soft on business identity by Ashriel · · Score: 1

      Business aren't entitled to privacy. Even in the European Union, which has privacy rights for individuals, businesses don't get that right.

      That may be true in the EU, but here in the US, and only in some states - like New Mexico - it is possible to form a pseudo-anonymous corporation, with absolutely no tiebacks to you other than through the IRS.

      It's cheap (very cheap), and you can build an unlimited stack of DBAs like Robert Brown or John Smith. I'm not going to even start with the many ways that could be abused.

      Getting sued? People on your ass because of your scandalous/fraudulent business practices? File a dissolution form and start another corporation. Easy as that.

    4. Re:Google is squishy soft on business identity by Animats · · Score: 1

      That may be true in the EU, but here in the US, and only in some states - like New Mexico - it is possible to form a pseudo-anonymous corporation, with absolutely no tiebacks to you other than through the IRS. It's cheap (very cheap), and you can build an unlimited stack of DBAs like Robert Brown or John Smith. I'm not going to even start with the many ways that could be abused.

      Yes, there are "low-doc" US states. Nevada is one. However, if you accept credit cards from California residents, there's California Business and Professions Code Section 17358, which requires disclosing the "actual name and address from which the business is conducted". California prosecutors routinely use that provision against scam sites; if the site is doing something slimy and is anonymous, prosecution under 17538 is an easy misdemeanor conviction good for 6 months in jail max.

  51. Be weary of a billion dollar corp bearing gifts by mTor · · Score: 1

    ... because these "free" gifts are not free at all. There's always a cost associated with them and the cost is often higher than if you paid few dollars each month for them.

    Google's become a giant corporation and they're not an underdog that we all loved to cheer for at some point. Now they're trying to squeeze as much money as possible out of "their" assets. These assets are your private information which Google has abused in the past and they'll abuse in the future.

    If you want to scare yourself, give their TOS a read and then think twice before you give them another piece of your information.

    Personally, I've stopped using their products altogether and now only use their Search once in a while and I do it without being logged in (don't even have an account with them anymore).

  52. Re:I think what *slashdotters* don't understand of by Rizimar · · Score: 1

    So basically, don't try to educate anyone because it's useless. Gotcha.

  53. Re:Google is more evil than the NBC/ABC/CBS ever w by aztracker1 · · Score: 1

    Many cable companies already are... there''s far less need for neilson as the cable co. boxes have a lot of the watching habit info.

    --
    Michael J. Ryan - tracker1.info
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  55. shafted again by epine · · Score: 1

    I live in an area which has had no recorded crime in two years, but I pay for the police.

    "But" is a funny conjunction for this sentiment. I spend a lot of time thinking about the entitlement ratchet of the human mind, which tends to hide behind small words just like that one. Your statement is consistent with major acts of terrorism in America 9/10/2001. Should America have been investing more or less?

    In this case I think what you meant is "but prudence dictates continued vigilance nevertheless". That's a lot to ask for from a small word which usually conveys "shafted again" if sifted through the large mental mesh of an unfair world.

  56. Interesting post from Google's privacy tzar by damian2k · · Score: 1

    The freedom to be who you want to be by Alma Whitten, Director of Privacy, Product and Engineering, Google.

    Youtube and Blogger already have a large amount of users with pseudonyms already, so they couldn't do anything there.

    However, it seems its easier for them just to apply their "real name policy" to new products, like Google+ and Google checkout ...

  57. The actual link by tonymercmobily · · Score: 1

    Hi,

    The actual link to the article is:

    http://www.freesoftwaremagazine.com/columns/googles_real_name_policy_or_why_you_are_product

    The link posted in the story was an iFrame sandwich -- the one above is the actual link!

    Merc.

  58. Re: Really nothing new! by jofilho · · Score: 1

    Yes, this is not new. A lot of business has us, the people, as the product. For instance, the schools. Which is the school's product? The study? The students? And who are the costumers? The students? The companies who hire the students? So... yes, we are the Google's product. This is not bad. This is real.

  59. Re:Nothing new: Lack of regulations? by lalchandran · · Score: 1

    Good comments! IMO, the issues is not with a public ltd company making money with little or no care to privacy issues, the issue is more on lack of regulations on the use of private date for financial gains. Do read an old post of mine on similar issue at http://lalchandran.blogspot.com/2011/03/2020-b2b-business-model-protecting.html; comments are always welcome.

  60. Re:Google is more evil than the NBC/ABC/CBS ever w by poofmeisterp · · Score: 1

    Google is not "more evil". They just have the better tools, if NBCBSwhatever had the tools, they'd do EXACTLY the same.

    Companies see you as a way to make money. By selling to you, or by selling you. Either is fine by them.

    Heh. You're right.

    Just made me realize (and I'm not joking but it sounds humorous in my head) that the ones who are selling TO you want to be seen and show how glamorous and awesome they are, along with their products or services that are the most awesome one you could ever have.

    The ones who want to sell you remain completely invisible and mysterious with lots of disclaimers that they promise to do everything correct and by the books. They always have a lot of material surrounding them that distrac... hey look at the shiny ad with the cute little shirt and th.... SQUIRREL!!!!!

  61. Re:Google is more evil than the NBC/ABC/CBS ever w by poofmeisterp · · Score: 1

    Apparently this is what some of the cable companies do with their on-demand. Track what uses watch then target them with personalized ads. And in this case you are paying cable companies for the privilege of getting targed ads.

    I always wondered what it would be like to have the Hulu Ad-Time question changed to:

    "Which type of ad do you you prefer?"

    1. The New Car that looks sleeker and cooler than all of the others on the market today *cough*
    2. The New Washing Machine that will clean more than 200 loads in an hour to help keep your family OnTheGo(sm) *choke*
    3. Neither, because ads completely annoy the crap out of you and make you vow never to buy what you see on principle, let alone spending model of the company advertising. *cheer*
     
    :)

    I actually prefer to stare at a black screen with the seconds counting down over watching ads. I actually get up if I'm sitting down and walk away to do something else when ads come on because I can do nothing but verbally assault the BS they're throwing forth. My favorite part of DVR technology and some televisions' live halt features is to pause and read the fine print at the bottom of most ads; OMG OMG that is effing hilarious. Oh, and that only counts for the ones that don't have print so fine that present-day DIGITAL TV MAKES IT UNREADABLE. I'm waiting for the LAWSUITS TO FLY in court on that one..... I could go on but I'll stop.