3 ms·

Google’s User Data Empire

• varjag 18y ago
  "The other was a curious query, as it trasmitted events(used generic names so I dont know what each stood for), a unique ID, and interestingly enough a variable called “rep”, presumably implying a user reputation level." It is very unlikely they would store reputation on the client side. I can only applaud the author for healthy amount of justified paranoia, but here he most likely off the mark.
• TweedHeads 18y ago
  Beware of shady companies in redmond using fake blogs to spread fud about their competitors. For some time I've been reading about how evil google is about privacy and user data. If you don't like it don't use it.
  • Tichy 18y ago
    The data Google can collect is no FUD story. Whether it will turn bad eventually or not is another question.
    • shrughes 18y ago
      Well, there is certainly have fear, uncertainty, and doubt, but rightfully so.
• jodrellblank 18y ago
  And a lot more - blogger, picasa, google desktop search, google talk and voice, google mobile, docs... I don't see a way to clear cookies in Maps on the iPhone either. I suspect there's a lot more that they can infer than we would initially think, too. E.g. When you email someone at gmail, your sending ip address and (typically) real name are in the headers - no need to use google checkout to get a lot of probable matches. It scares me not because I think google are abusing it now, but that it will never be deleted no matter what happens to google management or what government gets in power - in any country they have data replicated - for the rest of our lives. That could be a long time to trust them, and it becomes more powerful the bigger the collection gets and the more we rely on the net.