5 ms·
Because it might be on a public website not blocked by an appropriate robots.txt
by f_allwein 3y ago
Because it might be on a public website not blocked by an appropriate robots.txt
- ehnto 3y agoIt sounds like it is a worthwhile step to make it Google and friends problem to not store that information. Similar to how they blur faces in Google Maps. I don't think it's unreasonable, Google knows and we all know that private information ends up online without our permission, but Google is the only one in the conversation hoovering that data up and showing it to anyone who asks nicely. I don't get to do that, laws apply to me that say I can't even collect that information without consent let alone display it.
- charcircuit 3y agoIt typically isn't private information. Things like names or addresses are public information.
- justrealist 3y agoYou know that phone books existed before Google, right? Your name, phone number, and address have not been considered private for most of history.
- sbuk 3y agoYou know that in many territories, being in the phone book is/was opt in?
- justrealist 3y agoI'm not denying that this is theoretically possible, but I have never experienced nor heard of anyone for whom this was the case. It does not seem like it would be workable at all tbh.
- sbuk 3y agoTelecom companies in the UK (and possibly the rest of Europe) must opt you in.
- ikekkdcjkfke 3y agoOpt-out
- lrem 3y agoCan you list three? I can’t think of one, everywhere I know of that’s opt out.
- NoZebra120vClip 3y agoIn fact, City Directories were much more comprehensive, from the end of the 18th century. City Directories can contain people's exact home addresses, their occupations, and places of employment. The directories were a combined white pages-yellow pages even before the phone company got in on it. Traditionally, in most small towns, privacy has meant something entirely different, because all the residents of a town knew everybody else's business, whether it was from open sharing, gossip, or low-tech spying. People in a small town do not have freedom of movement or freedom of anonymity. There is no crowd to blend into.
- ehnto 3y agoYep, surely you also know the world has changed dramatically since then too, especially in regards to information security. International automated scraping and spam, identity theft and even stalking are now international activities. People weren't under such high pressure from information threats in the ye olden days. Name and phone numbers are Personally Identifying Information in most countries with strong privacy laws, for me I cannot store that info privately without consent let alone make it public.
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- Thorrez 3y agoWouldn't it be more straightforward to make those sites that display personal information illegal themselves, rather than make it illegal for Google to index them? Disclosure: I work at Google, but not on anything related to this.
- Terretta 3y ago> Wouldn't it be more straightforward to make those sites that display personal information illegal themselves, rather than make it illegal for Google to index them? Exactly! Same principle as why we should mandate burqas. Just make it illegal to be identifiable in public, instead of illegal for surveillance industry to collect and track identities.
- Thorrez 3y agoI have a hard time understanding your point. Are you saying that being a free search engine for webpages makes you part of the surveillance industry, but People Finder et. al., that charge money for the express purpose of letting you snoop on other people aren't? My point isn't that we should make it illegal for people to be identifiable in public. My point is that instead of making it illegal for Google to index People Finder, it would be more logical to make People Finder illegal.
- ehnto 3y agoSince the internet is global, it is very challenging to enforce something like that to a degree where it would be effective. Given a lot of directory sites are themselves low effort scrapers, and automated SEO/adsense plays, it would be a wack-a-mole. That does put Google in a position of power though. Make that kind of site not allowed to participate in adsense and watch them vanish overnight.
- Thorrez 3y agoI agree it would be hard to enforce. That doesn't mean we shouldn't make it illegal to host the content though. We could make it illegal to host the content and ask Google to delist it. Asking Google to delist it without making the content illegal doesn't make that much sense to me.