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Google Offering Cash For Your Cache

Posted by samzenpus on from the have-a-couple-bucks dept.

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?"

7 of 152 comments (clear)

  1. Just Might Take Them Up On It by Lieutenant+Buddha · · Score: 5, Interesting

    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.

    --
    "A casual stroll through the lunatic asylum shows that faith does not prove anything." ~Friedrich Nietzsche
    1. Re:Just Might Take Them Up On It by Mr.+Underbridge · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Well, given what they could assimilate on most users, they know who you are, where you live, your medical problems, your political leanings, and your sexual orientation. I think that would give pause to anyone who is, or would ever like to be, employed.

      While I don't envision them doing anything evil with that data, I can most certainly envision it being possible.

    2. Re:Just Might Take Them Up On It by Opportunist · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Well, my boss knows my political position (welcome to our wonderful world of politicial influence in pretty much any place that is remotely touching administration), he knows my medical problems (after all, he's the guy who has to sign my sick days), where I live (because he needs a place to send my mail to) and as far as I can tell, he doesn't give half a shit if I enjoy sucking off goats as long as I do my job.

      That doesn't mean that I enjoy some random company having any data of me. Hence 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.

      --
      We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
    3. Re:Just Might Take Them Up On It by Zontar+The+Mindless · · Score: 5, Interesting

      ...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. :)

      --
      Il n'y a pas de Planet B.
    4. Re:Just Might Take Them Up On It by justforgetme · · Score: 5, Insightful

      ohh.. There is already software for that, don't worry. After all facebook doesn't need you to tag yourself, they have already identified you and just wait for your confirmation.

      In the summer I can remember Facebook identifying me in some photos nobody had ever touched.
      Last month they wanted to verify some locations in Europe I've been photographed in
      Next month they are going to be asking me where I was at the time of the murder of a member of parliament.

      Joke aside feature recognition algos have become unbelievably efficient for location estimation and face recognition, I'm not sure if Facebook's questions are just deductive logic from the info your peers provide or if they actually try to produce data from the images but the later is equally doable.

      --
      -- no sig today
    5. Re:Just Might Take Them Up On It by shadowmas · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Remember the deported British twitters from America? They too thought that their information was no value to anyone and that it wasn't important. Well the Homeland security proved them wrong. How little you think about your details are irrelevant. Its what others think about them that matters. You might be absolutely innocent but if your browsing habits or facbook posts indicate to a possible power (goverment or otherwise) that you are a suspect then you'll have a hard time proving your innocence. You might be able to do that but is the hassle worth a couple of hundred dollars?

  2. Re:Speaking as an "expert" in Faust... by themusicgod1 · · Score: 5, Funny

    "I can quit google any time I feel like. I'm not addicted at all. In fact I could google 'google rehab' and start on quitting right now."

    --
    GENERATION 26: The first time you see this, copy it into your sig on any forum and add 1 to the generation.