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Here is a strawman, because I want to challenge the other parallel universe. Let's say this whole pledge thing didn't exist and the only thing that GAFE promis

by yeukhon 11y ago

Here is a strawman, because I want to challenge the other parallel universe. Let's say this whole pledge thing didn't exist and the only thing that GAFE promise is no ads. Now let's supposed Google is collecting and anonymizing usage data, like most sofwares do, is that a big deal? Since 99% of the people won't read the ToS and most people assume some level of usage data will be collected, what would be people's stand on that? I think, Google's stand on the current issue is that they disagree their intent violate the pledge. They would argue data collection is anonymized, and like most software out there (Chrome, FireFox, etc) these are telemetry (and all sorts) collected. For Google the collection is for regular development purpose. Perhaps they will argue that they did not do a good job at making a "disable me" option, and that they didn't make that clear to their customers. I supposed EFF just doesn't trust Google handling the data in the first place, since Google can lie about not logging the individual user name in some server's log file.

mattlutze 11y ago
They don't collect anonymized data. They collect data, then anonymize it for aggregation by their machine learning systems. They still have data with user information in it. I'd be surprised if it was just "for regular development purposes." I'd wager that collected usage information in drives marketing and sales efforts, to enterprise customers at least but perhaps consumers as well. And while it's not directly used to target ads at the students on that platform, I'd be similarly surprised if it wasn't used to train their commercial-side profiles to make targeting "anonymous" 12-18 year-olds more effective.
- yeukhon 11y ago
  Maybe. Google doesn't specify how they are fitting their data in their training program. But to be clear, I didn't say they were just for development purpose. I was imagining that'd be their interpretation. They would see that as telemetry or diagnostic information. But if they will provide an opt-out option, that will help resolve the issue. EFF isn't wrong, they are catching an implicit fineprint, and Google is interpreting that very differently (not being Google).

by yeukhon 11y ago

mattlutze 11y ago

They don't collect anonymized data. They collect data, then anonymize it for aggregation by their machine learning systems. They still have data with user information in it. I'd be surprised if it was just "for regular development purposes." I'd wager that collected usage information in drives marketing and sales efforts, to enterprise customers at least but perhaps consumers as well. And while it's not directly used to target ads at the students on that platform, I'd be similarly surprised if it wasn't used to train their commercial-side profiles to make targeting "anonymous" 12-18 year-olds more effective.

yeukhon 11y ago
Maybe. Google doesn't specify how they are fitting their data in their training program. But to be clear, I didn't say they were just for development purpose. I was imagining that'd be their interpretation. They would see that as telemetry or diagnostic information. But if they will provide an opt-out option, that will help resolve the issue. EFF isn't wrong, they are catching an implicit fineprint, and Google is interpreting that very differently (not being Google).