Google Offering Cash For Your Cache

pigrabbitbear writes "The gradual transformation of the web into an ultra-personalized, corporate-owned social space in the cloud has raised more than a few legitimate concerns about data privacy. Google, for obvious reasons, has always been one of the top cheerleaders for this metamorphosis. Touting a fresh new privacy policy that allows data about you from all of their services to coalesce, they've recently been particularly bullish about rendering that increasingly realistic digital portrait of you that lies stuffed away in their servers. It has led us again to question: How much are we comfortable with our machines knowing about us? How much is our privacy really worth? With their new program, Google is now asking those questions quite directly, and preceding them with dollar signs. Are we all on the verge of making our own information age Faustian bargains?"

Comments

Just Might Take Them Up On It

[Lieutenant Buddha]

Let me be the first (!) to say that I would not be entirely opposed to this idea. I am not a rich man and my data is private, just not... *that* private. While I disagree with the sale of personal data on principle, in practice I am really not concerned at all with anything I can envision them doing with that information. In a word, meh.

Re:Just Might Take Them Up On It

[EdIII]

why is it a problem the OP doesn't share your values? She's clear on the facts.

It's a problem because it has nothing to do with values. Saying it does implies that it is a lifestyle choice like pick-your-utopia day.

Although one might not be able to envision what you can do with information, that does not mean that something cannot be done with it, or be done with it in the future.

Those who cannot remember the past are doomed to repeat it. History has shown us, in concrete factual terms, that people can do some downright nasty things to other people for any number of reasons and justifications tied to whatever values, religions, etc. you can think of.

Which is precisely why protecting your privacy, meaning protecting the information about you, is "value" agnostic. It is just simple logic. The less those in power know about you the more protected you are. Period. That simple. I could beat you over the head with history books for a few hours, but it really is that simple.

Information is power. Power corrupts. Absolutely power corrupts absolutely.

People can stick to their "values" and be completely open and free with all information that pertains to them. What will not change about it is the incredible danger they are in by doing so. That fact will remain timeless.

Re:Just Might Take Them Up On It

[Zontar The Mindless]

...I usually give them more data than they want. Poison the cache with random data and let's see how they find out how they match up.

That's kind of how I feel about Facebook photo tagging. Last week I got tagged in 6 photos taken on 3 different continents.

Of course, the date and/or location were wrong for 2 of them, and I was only actually *in* 4 of the photos, which should make things even more interesting.

So... Good luck figuring that out. :)

Re:Just Might Take Them Up On It

[wanzeo]

1. Install virtual machine
2. Install Chrome
3. Write Python script to browse web continuously
4. ???^h^h^h Sell cache
5. Profit!

Speaking as an "expert" in Faust...

[MrEricSir]

Speaking as someone who took a class about the myth of Faust, I can tell you in my expert opinion that my notes and papers from that course were lost when a brownout fried my hard drives. Damn! If only I'd sold my soul to a cloud backup service.

But this sounds more like a modernized, snoopier incarnation of AllAdvantage than a genuine Faustian bargain; particularly because you can quit whenever you want.

Information is worth money-why am I not being paid

[Anonymous Coward]

Information is worth money - so why am I not being paid?

That is one thought, but I don't think it is not the cornerstone of the issue. Where I see the problem is the we have digital goods that are being given away and resold by every Tom, Dick and Harry. If my information is worth something to someone, then it should be protected and I should have the ability to protect it. Where is my protection? Almost every contract I see seems to base the concept of privacy as: We can take your information, share it with our subsiduaries (whom may have no rules in place for privacy, but is allowed according to contract), whom in turn may sell it on if they believe it is worth something.

What I think is needed is new laws to protect the people against companies fleecing information being from us. For example, to purchace a phone on a plan, I was being asked (on top of 3 pieces of idenification, one of which MUST be a credit card):
Where I work
When I work
How long have I worked there
Where I live
How long I've lived there
etc. etc.

They didn't need this information. Honestly it felt like someone fishing for information as to when is the best time to rob my house. All they need is my basic details to confirm my identity, and banking details to confirm I can pay. Same for collection agencies - they don't need to verify my idenity to tell me a bill is late - only to process a payment on the spot or to give me further details. Instead they try their hardest to get me to give them my birthdate etc., when I did not call them and the burden of proof is upon them to verify their idenity. Why? Then only reason I can assume is to sell this information off. It is not the company that I owe money to calling me, it is a company HIRED by them to call/collect. Since I have no contract with the collection agency, is there any law to stop them selling this information?

To my knowledge, there is not.

And their should be.