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That's a very real concern. As a parent I think about things like that all the time. My son has a personal Chromebook and both my son and daughter use Google sc
by Mtinie 10y ago
That's a very real concern. As a parent I think about things like that all the time. My son has a personal Chromebook and both my son and daughter use Google school accounts.
The alternative, in this case using a Microsoft Surface Laptop instead, should raise many of the same concerns. With the tight coupling of online services and single account sign-on options that Microsoft offers, similarly extensive advertising and usage profiles can be built.
- komali2 10y agoWhy do you worry about this? Do you believe targeted ads are more harmful to your child than non-targeted?
- Mtinie 10y agoNo, I'm not worried about targeted ads, per say. I'm more worried about the future misuse of all the accumulated data from their access and version control logs for cloud-based documents, internet browsing behavior, multi-player gaming sessions, personal emails, and all of the other forms of trackable interactions that my kids (and the rest of us) generate with on a daily basis. It doesn't keep me up at nights -- but the paranoid part of me thinks it should.
- komali2 9y agoCan you define misuse better? I'm not asking to be cruel, I just genuinely don't understand why someone would find the kind of personal information collection that is happening already, to be upsetting. I.e. I see targeted ads regularly, so I know that I am being tracked by google et al, but this does not upset me. Can you help me understand why this should upset me?
- mundo 9y agoIt's 2037. A substantial chunk of 20-year-old Google user data got into the wild via (sale / theft / government regulation / who knows? A lot can happen in two decades). Some enterprising startup fed that data into a simple ML algorithm and correlated it against other publicly available data. Turns out, your search history as a kid partially predicts adult outcomes like salary, grades in college, chance of bankruptcy, chance of arrest, etc. That startup sells this info to Experian, who adjusts their credit scores accordingly.
- komali2 9y agoI can see why this would be a problem, but I would say it could be solved by making it illegal to adjust credit score based off non-transactional financial data. But I understand the concern better now, thank you.
- wfunction 10y agoIf ads were the only issue I'd be pretty happy and willing to give advertisers all my information. Trouble is companies and law enforcement frequently abuse information, and even when they don't, they get hacked by other people who do.
- wbillingsley 10y agoI wouldn't be "happy" to give them all my info. I'd like to be able to share my screen with the person standing next to me, "look at this thing I've found", without worrying some advertiser is going to reveal any personal detail they'd like to infer about me through which advert they pop on my screen. Especially if we're talking about children and young adults, where even "you watch that tv show?" can be a source for social discomfort.
- rayiner 10y agoIt should be illegal to advertise to kids.
- komali2 9y agoWhy?
- rayiner 9y agoAdvertising is often coercive, designed to manipulate people into buying things they don't need/overpaying for things. E.g. brand advertising is why people pay $150 for a $10-pair of jeans made in Vietnam. Children's brains aren't fully developed, which makes them uniquely susceptible to manipulation via advertising. At the same time, they have no conceivable need to learn about different products, because almost none are direct participants in the economy. It's difficult to categorically ban advertising in a free society, but at least in the U.S. speech that does nothing more than propose a commercial transaction is subject to lower First Amendment protections, and the combination of harmful effects on children and the lack of any benefit probably get you over the First Amendment hump in that specific scenario.
- hueving 9y agoAre you okay with a big company having a profile about your child's most intimate questions as they age? Children don't grasp the potential consequences of companies maintaining registries of people searching for really personal things.
- mavhc 9y agoHowever once they leave that school they'll be using a different account.
- la_oveja 9y agoYou think Google is that stupid that can't track multiple accounts of the same person? Google's business is data collection and processing.
- komali2 9y agoWhat sort of intimate questions do you mean? I'm ok with google knowing my location every second, I'm ok with receiving targeted shopping ads about watches after I browse watches on Amazon. I block ads when I feel like it, it's no skin off my bones. It's not like men in black suits accost me at bus stops and force fliers into my hands with targeted ads. It's in my mind, literally harmless.
- komali2 9y agoEDIT: All of my comments in this thread are being downvoted, presumably because 1. People are assuming I support advertising, and advertising to children 2. People are angered by that and thus downvote me. All I'm intending to do is clarify why readers don't like the concept of advertising, or advertising to children. Is this offense, to ask for a clarification?
- Mtinie 9y agoI have no issues with your question and was happy to provide a response. Not sure why the downvote brigade decided to drop by your comment.