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Online Privacy Worth Less Than Marshmallow Fluff Six Pack

Posted by timothy on from the sounds-about-right dept.

nonprofiteer writes "With a program called Screenwise, Google is offering a total of $25 in Amazon gift cards to anyone willing to install a Chrome browser extension that will let the search giant track every website the user visits and what they do there over a year-long period. Google says it will study this in order to improve its products and services. Forbes points out that $25 in Amazon credits isn't quite enough to buy a six pack of Marshmallow Fluff ($26.75)." The money isn't much as a pure trade for privacy, but I suspect that many people would like to have their preferences be among those that shape how Google — and other companies, too — actually organize their interfaces. (Note that the tracking can be selectively turned off by the user.)

8 of 223 comments (clear)

  1. Maybe Google can get my age and gender right by sandytaru · · Score: 4, Funny

    Since they got it so very wrong, wrong, wrong on the first go round.

    --
    Occasionally living proof of the Ballmer peak.
    1. Re:Maybe Google can get my age and gender right by Oswald+McWeany · · Score: 5, Funny

      Sorry, I trust google more than some random person on the web. How do you know you're not wrong about your age and gender?

      I think you should accept the fact that you're not what you think you are.

      --
      "That's the way to do it" - Punch
    2. Re:Maybe Google can get my age and gender right by 0racle · · Score: 1, Funny

      There are, in fact, girls on the Internet.

      No, there are not.

      --
      "I use a Mac because I'm just better than you are."
  2. Great idea by Megahard · · Score: 5, Funny

    I'm installing it on the wife's computer.

    --
    I eat only the real part of complex carbohydrates.
    1. Re:Great idea by Oswald+McWeany · · Score: 4, Funny

      Install it on the library computer.

      --
      "That's the way to do it" - Punch
    2. Re:Great idea by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

      I've already been tracking your wife's computer usage, screenshots, webcam, etc - for years.

      And she seems to enjoy watching midgets shit on old people.

  3. Re:If any google employee can stomach what I surf by Oswald+McWeany · · Score: 3, Funny

    Google would show good humour if "marshmallow fluff" were the name of the next Android OS release.

    --
    "That's the way to do it" - Punch
  4. Re:If any google employee can stomach what I surf by windcask · · Score: 4, Funny

    Perhaps "Height-disadvantaged persons defecating above the long-lived?"