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Yes - good resource. All of Google's TOS/Privacy-Polcies are so full of vague and misleading legal speak (on purpose of course), I'm not surprised that OP was

by rchmura 11y ago

Yes - good resource. All of Google's TOS/Privacy-Polcies are so full of vague and misleading legal speak (on purpose of course), I'm not surprised that OP was tricked.

dandelion_lover 11y ago
>>I'm not surprised that OP was tricked Actually, I wasn't. I know what to expect from Google, but I am not a developer and wanted to see the response from professionals about this plugin.
hahainternet 11y ago
> All of Google's TOS/Privacy-Polcies are so full of vague and misleading legal speak Please provide 3 misleading examples.
- alain94040 11y ago
  Everything is debatable of course, but pretty much on page 1 of Google's privacy page, I see: We collect information to provide better services to all of our users – from figuring out basic stuff like which language you speak, to more complex things like which ads you’ll find most useful I object to "ads you'll find most useful" being ok under the category "provide better services to our users". If you accept the premise that better ads are useful, then pretty much everything Google does is for your own good.
  - hahainternet 11y ago
    This is not misleading in any way, your only disagreement with it is on principle. Even given that, I must say, the idea that better ads are not useful is probably fallacious
    - rchmura 11y ago
      What are better ads? Are they ads that really connect with you? Do they change your behavior in some significant way? What makes ads better for the consumer? What makes ads better for the marketer? My answer is that what's good for the marketer is not good for the consumer. Google is optimizing for the marketer (getting better ROI). As long as consumers are told the ads are "unintrusive" they must be good too right? When marketers have a really strong ROI, they can get their ads out there and influence customer behavior. That type of influence is not good - and does not make it better for consumers.
      - hahainternet 11y ago
        They explicitly state 'more useful'. That is the metric they are using, better ads are ads which are more useful. For example. Until a day or two I did not know the 'MX Master' mouse existed. An advert for this would have been useful.
        rchmura 11y ago
        Useful and obtrusive are not mutually exclusive. Is it useful to have only large companies with large ad budgets peddle a slight iteration to their product line as "the next best thing", while smaller companies with a really great (superior) product don't get the exposure. The smaller company would have lower margins because they invest much more in superior materials, QA, R&D, etc. Where the larger company has an advantage because they invest more of their margin on ads. Note: I have an "MX Performance" and I would not recommend that line of mice no matter what the ads originally said.
- rchmura 11y ago
  Are you looking for examples of entire policies or do you mean misleading sentences? Are you not sure why I find them misleading (based on OPs example, et. al.), or do you disagree and find them to not be misleading?
  - hahainternet 11y ago
    Either / or. Google's policies are written in plain english and are extremely straightforward. The reason I ask is that it sounded like an unfounded criticism made up by someone without adequate research.
    - rchmura 11y ago
      chestnut-tree, earlier in this thread wrote up some great examples. No unfounded criticism here; lots of research in this area. I'm not sure why you feel it sounded that way.
- chestnut-tree 11y ago
  "Please provide 3 misleading examples." Google's privacy policy is not misleading but they omit some of the most important information you would expect to find in a privacy policy. When you sign up for a Google account you give Google your name, date-of-birth (DOB), location and mobile phone number. This is some of your most private and personal details. If you're signed in to your Google account while you browse the web or use your Android phone (or you use the track-everything-you-do Chrome OS), then Google records your browing habits and activity against your account. In many cases, that also gives Google some very private and personal information about you. It's no exageration to say that they know more about your online habits than you know yourself. Given that, Google omits in their privacy policy: - how long they keep your activity data before it is erased. Is it 6 months? 12 months? Forever? - whether they disassociate your identity from your browsing behaviour or web activity when they look at it (i.e is the data anonymised before Google's staff view it?) - related to the above: who sees your data inside Google? Their Privacy Policy simply states "We restrict access to personal information to Google employees, contractors and agents who need to know that information in order to process it for us and who are subject to strict contractual confidentiality obligations." This is too vague in my opinion particularly when you consider the gargantuan volumes of data Google collects about you. Let me put it another way: if I asked you for your name, DOB, mobile number and location and then recorded your online activity against that information, wouldn't you expect me to tell you who sees your data, whether that data is anonymised and how long I keep that data about you?
  - hahainternet 11y ago
    > When you sign up for a Google account you give Google your name, date-of-birth (DOB), location and mobile phone number. This is some of your most private and personal details > Information you give us. For example, many of our services require you to sign up for a Google Account. When you do, we’ll ask for personal information, like your name, email address, telephone number or credit card to store with your account They include that. > Google records your browing habits and activity against your account Also clearly explained in the Chrome privacy policy: > If you sign in to Chrome browser, Chrome OS or an Android device that includes Chrome as a pre-installed application with your Google Account, this will enable the synchronisation feature. Google will store certain information, such as history, bookmarked URLs as well as an image and a sample of text from the bookmarked page, passwords and other settings, on Google's servers in association with your Google Account > - how long they keep your activity data before it is erased. Is it 6 months? 12 months? Forever? I agree this would be nice to have more details on but they do detail some of the complexities involved and refer you to specific services pages for more information. > whether they disassociate your identity from your browsing behaviour or web activity when they look at it This appears to be really part of your next question: > related to the above: who sees your data inside Google? ... This is too vague in my opinion Can you give me an example of a way this could be made less vague in an acceptable fashion? I'm struggling to think of a way they could give me relevant information. > Let me put it another way: if I asked you for your name, DOB, mobile number and location and then recorded your online activity against that information, wouldn't you expect me to tell you who sees your data, whether that data is anonymised and how long I keep that data about you? Personally I'd make the decision ahead of time. I do appreciate your point, but only a portion of your post is valid as they are quite clear on a couple of the points. There's a large difference (imo) between 'misleading' and 'not thorough enough'.

by rchmura 11y ago

Yes - good resource. All of Google's TOS/Privacy-Polcies are so full of vague and misleading legal speak (on purpose of course), I'm not surprised that OP was tricked.

dandelion_lover 11y ago

>>I'm not surprised that OP was tricked Actually, I wasn't. I know what to expect from Google, but I am not a developer and wanted to see the response from professionals about this plugin.

hahainternet 11y ago

> All of Google's TOS/Privacy-Polcies are so full of vague and misleading legal speak Please provide 3 misleading examples.

alain94040 11y ago
Everything is debatable of course, but pretty much on page 1 of Google's privacy page, I see: We collect information to provide better services to all of our users – from figuring out basic stuff like which language you speak, to more complex things like which ads you’ll find most useful I object to "ads you'll find most useful" being ok under the category "provide better services to our users". If you accept the premise that better ads are useful, then pretty much everything Google does is for your own good.
- hahainternet 11y ago
  This is not misleading in any way, your only disagreement with it is on principle. Even given that, I must say, the idea that better ads are not useful is probably fallacious
  - rchmura 11y ago
    What are better ads? Are they ads that really connect with you? Do they change your behavior in some significant way? What makes ads better for the consumer? What makes ads better for the marketer? My answer is that what's good for the marketer is not good for the consumer. Google is optimizing for the marketer (getting better ROI). As long as consumers are told the ads are "unintrusive" they must be good too right? When marketers have a really strong ROI, they can get their ads out there and influence customer behavior. That type of influence is not good - and does not make it better for consumers.
    - hahainternet 11y ago
      They explicitly state 'more useful'. That is the metric they are using, better ads are ads which are more useful. For example. Until a day or two I did not know the 'MX Master' mouse existed. An advert for this would have been useful.
      - rchmura 11y ago
        Useful and obtrusive are not mutually exclusive. Is it useful to have only large companies with large ad budgets peddle a slight iteration to their product line as "the next best thing", while smaller companies with a really great (superior) product don't get the exposure. The smaller company would have lower margins because they invest much more in superior materials, QA, R&D, etc. Where the larger company has an advantage because they invest more of their margin on ads. Note: I have an "MX Performance" and I would not recommend that line of mice no matter what the ads originally said.
rchmura 11y ago
Are you looking for examples of entire policies or do you mean misleading sentences? Are you not sure why I find them misleading (based on OPs example, et. al.), or do you disagree and find them to not be misleading?
- hahainternet 11y ago
  Either / or. Google's policies are written in plain english and are extremely straightforward. The reason I ask is that it sounded like an unfounded criticism made up by someone without adequate research.
  - rchmura 11y ago
    chestnut-tree, earlier in this thread wrote up some great examples. No unfounded criticism here; lots of research in this area. I'm not sure why you feel it sounded that way.
chestnut-tree 11y ago
"Please provide 3 misleading examples." Google's privacy policy is not misleading but they omit some of the most important information you would expect to find in a privacy policy. When you sign up for a Google account you give Google your name, date-of-birth (DOB), location and mobile phone number. This is some of your most private and personal details. If you're signed in to your Google account while you browse the web or use your Android phone (or you use the track-everything-you-do Chrome OS), then Google records your browing habits and activity against your account. In many cases, that also gives Google some very private and personal information about you. It's no exageration to say that they know more about your online habits than you know yourself. Given that, Google omits in their privacy policy: - how long they keep your activity data before it is erased. Is it 6 months? 12 months? Forever? - whether they disassociate your identity from your browsing behaviour or web activity when they look at it (i.e is the data anonymised before Google's staff view it?) - related to the above: who sees your data inside Google? Their Privacy Policy simply states "We restrict access to personal information to Google employees, contractors and agents who need to know that information in order to process it for us and who are subject to strict contractual confidentiality obligations." This is too vague in my opinion particularly when you consider the gargantuan volumes of data Google collects about you. Let me put it another way: if I asked you for your name, DOB, mobile number and location and then recorded your online activity against that information, wouldn't you expect me to tell you who sees your data, whether that data is anonymised and how long I keep that data about you?
- hahainternet 11y ago
  > When you sign up for a Google account you give Google your name, date-of-birth (DOB), location and mobile phone number. This is some of your most private and personal details > Information you give us. For example, many of our services require you to sign up for a Google Account. When you do, we’ll ask for personal information, like your name, email address, telephone number or credit card to store with your account They include that. > Google records your browing habits and activity against your account Also clearly explained in the Chrome privacy policy: > If you sign in to Chrome browser, Chrome OS or an Android device that includes Chrome as a pre-installed application with your Google Account, this will enable the synchronisation feature. Google will store certain information, such as history, bookmarked URLs as well as an image and a sample of text from the bookmarked page, passwords and other settings, on Google's servers in association with your Google Account > - how long they keep your activity data before it is erased. Is it 6 months? 12 months? Forever? I agree this would be nice to have more details on but they do detail some of the complexities involved and refer you to specific services pages for more information. > whether they disassociate your identity from your browsing behaviour or web activity when they look at it This appears to be really part of your next question: > related to the above: who sees your data inside Google? ... This is too vague in my opinion Can you give me an example of a way this could be made less vague in an acceptable fashion? I'm struggling to think of a way they could give me relevant information. > Let me put it another way: if I asked you for your name, DOB, mobile number and location and then recorded your online activity against that information, wouldn't you expect me to tell you who sees your data, whether that data is anonymised and how long I keep that data about you? Personally I'd make the decision ahead of time. I do appreciate your point, but only a portion of your post is valid as they are quite clear on a couple of the points. There's a large difference (imo) between 'misleading' and 'not thorough enough'.