I was just thinking about the direction Google seems to be headed concerning privacy. They collect IP addresses related to search queries, and perhaps browsing to sites with Google ads. That isn't news. They have a good idea of what you like, where you go, when, and why. Then their Gmail service takes all of that and ties it into who you talk to, when, and about what, and further archives all of it. Also not news.
They offer their Google Earth and Desktop applications for download. Each of these seemingly useful applications are in a perfect position to record what applications are run and when, but that could just be frank paranoia.
However an IP address even resolved to give the domain name still only shows a general ISP and perhaps a general location.
If ISPs begin to use Gmail as their primary mail service what new specific information will Google gain? Exact city? Name (ISPs such as roadrunner by default use the actual account name for the primary email user name, for example BJohnson38). Combine that with the above information and it may be possible for Google to pin point the identity of someone just surfing the web.
That gives possibly a single location for government and law enforcement to obtain information, it also gives a single source to share or leak such information.
While the company itself may be against turning over information, they still have humans working for them, humans that can hold a grudge for a rude support request (I've had a couple ISPs/webhosts delete all my email when I complained about the level of service for simple problems), humans that can screw up. Hmm I wonder if I can compress user data to tunnel faster using AJAX and improve Gmail performance... oops where did the data just get sent to, uhh, damn.
Maybe all paranoia, maybe not. I'm not a mind reader and I can only make reasonable guesses towards certain future events. It still makes me uneasy to be setting Google up as the parent, responsible for everything, when it seems all too common for parents to neglect the well being of their children for personal gain, and we all should know those with the most trust will cause the most damage if that trust is misplaced.
Just a few things to think about, hope I'm not redundant by now. -Musfuut
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I was just thinking about the direction Google seems to be headed concerning privacy. They collect IP addresses related to search queries, and perhaps browsing to sites with Google ads. That isn't news. They have a good idea of what you like, where you go, when, and why. Then their Gmail service takes all of that and ties it into who you talk to, when, and about what, and further archives all of it. Also not news.
They offer their Google Earth and Desktop applications for download. Each of these seemingly useful applications are in a perfect position to record what applications are run and when, but that could just be frank paranoia.
However an IP address even resolved to give the domain name still only shows a general ISP and perhaps a general location.
If ISPs begin to use Gmail as their primary mail service what new specific information will Google gain? Exact city? Name (ISPs such as roadrunner by default use the actual account name for the primary email user name, for example BJohnson38). Combine that with the above information and it may be possible for Google to pin point the identity of someone just surfing the web.
That gives possibly a single location for government and law enforcement to obtain information, it also gives a single source to share or leak such information.
While the company itself may be against turning over information, they still have humans working for them, humans that can hold a grudge for a rude support request (I've had a couple ISPs/webhosts delete all my email when I complained about the level of service for simple problems), humans that can screw up. Hmm I wonder if I can compress user data to tunnel faster using AJAX and improve Gmail performance... oops where did the data just get sent to, uhh, damn.
Maybe all paranoia, maybe not. I'm not a mind reader and I can only make reasonable guesses towards certain future events. It still makes me uneasy to be setting Google up as the parent, responsible for everything, when it seems all too common for parents to neglect the well being of their children for personal gain, and we all should know those with the most trust will cause the most damage if that trust is misplaced.
Just a few things to think about, hope I'm not redundant by now.
-Musfuut