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Google can use your name and photo alongside online ads
- miguelrochefort 13y agoWhat's wrong with you guys? Why do you keep complaining "in the name of privacy". There's nothing wrong with that, nothing creepy about it. You all assume that it's bad, it's "evil", but give me a rational argument against it. Just one. You can't find one because hating on such poor basis is irrational and foolish. Just grow up and embrace the future. EDIT: man up -> grow up
- cliffu 13y agoNice; a classic "if you've got nothing to hide" with a bonus gender role shaming. > You can't find one because hating on such poor basis is irrational and foolish. +1'd a gay rights group, have fundamentalist parents.
- miguelrochefort 13y agoIt's not about having nothing to hide. It's about fighting for what is right. Homosexuality would probably not be so tolerated today if it was easy to hide. You have to realize that you can't please everyone. And you certainly can't expect to live your whole life anonymously. You have to make decisions, and you have to accept that someone, somewhere, is going to be unhappy about it. What if you were/are gay? Would you hide it from your parent all your life? Probably not (I hope). Why do you expect something different with the causes you support? Does anyone blame Facebook for making Likes public? Probably some, but they're the tinfoil hat kind. Your support has no real weight unless your identity is known. Should we ask Google to lower their standards, to match a culture of privacy that is both unsustainable and dying? My suggestion, don't +1 anything until you're ready to accept the benefits/consequences. Doing otherwise is unresponsible.
- tensor 13y agoSomehow for many years we've lived as a society with anonymous reviews counting for something. We've lived without each individual broadcasting everything we buy and use to the world. Your view is the minority here. Why don't you go ask a random sampling of people if they want their choices in underwear broadcast to the world? It's time you looked beyond yourself and realized that people don't have the same preferences regarding privacy as you, nor should they.
- fphhotchips 13y agoWhy are you +1ing underwear? I've been able to see if somebody +1'd a search result for ages now, and quite frankly I don't want to know if somebody in my circles wears Bonds.
- Helianthus 13y agoYou... really are making quite a botched job of this. 1) You should be very, very careful about having a public opinion on coming out if you do not have personal (or more importantly relevant) experience. 2) We're in an era where the fears of tinfoil hats seem more and more reasonable. For you to write concerns off derisively in such a manner is completely out of touch. 3) Perhaps there is, in and of itself, nothing terribly surprising or intrusive about Google using +1s in advertisements. Focusing on that innocuousness is obtuse. It is as if you are pointedly ignoring the context of the privacy debate. >a culture of privacy that is both unsustainable and dying? This privacy culture is very alive. It is under great stress, but it is alive. What makes your viewpoint insufferable is that you don't seem to see the value in fighting for it.
- miguelrochefort 13y agoI don't see the long term value in fighting for it. I publicly criticized privacy many times before. Everything has been said, now we just wait for the unavoidable obsolescence of privacy.
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- LinXitoW 13y agoCould your parents see this +1 before? Then they can see it now, besides an advert(although id think that unlikely). Could they NOT see it? Then they'll STILL not see it. Not besides an ad or anywhere else. RTFA
- deleted 13y ago[deleted]
- alexeisadeski3 13y agoIt seems that you can opt out of this new Google thing tho, right?
- vkou 13y agoYes, you can opt out.
- madoublet 13y agoThat is part of the problem, for stuff like this you should have to opt-in. How many people realize their account just became a billboard for Google?
- masklinn 13y agoMaybe, for now. As you could previously prevent searches on your name in facebook and all that jazz.
- tensor 13y agoUnlike facebook, google has a good track record of keeping settings like this unchanged. In fact, if you've already opted out of previous tracking related things (like personalized ads), it appears they set this new thing to off automatically. I'm no fan of these sorts of things at all, but at least google has yet to betray my privacy settings where it seems a routine thing for facebook.
- Helianthus 13y ago>at least google has yet to betray my privacy settings You don't have privacy settings. At best you have the appearance of control over how some of your information is used some of the time.
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- alecsmart1 13y agoIt's really wrong to have these options opt-out. They should be opt-in. I know so many people who use Google services on a daily basis and are not techno-savvy. They will never know about it.
- HNaTTY 13y agoIf this is the opt-in/out checkbox, mine was already set to not allow them to use my name/profile photo: https://plus.google.com/settings/endorsements?hl=en https://plus.google.com/settings/endorsements?hl=en
- brandnewlow 13y agoMine too. I am confused as to why people are saying this is opt-out.
- bluecalm 13y agoHopefully they won't put "opt-in" button in gmail in exact same position where log-out used to be (as they did with G+ recently)
- patejam 13y agoIf it is only shared with the people who you originally shared it with, what is the problem?
- mjolk 13y ago>It's really wrong to have these options opt-out. They should be opt-in. Google isn't a public utility. It's a business and businesses perform actions to make money.
- Pxtl 13y agoAs if consumers didn't have enough reasons to avoid Google Plus.
- psbp 13y agoI don't get it. If I have to see an ad for a product, I might as well see that one of my friends recommended it.
- jmathai 13y agoThe concern, I think, is from the side of the user whose photo appears next to an ad. I didn't read the new ToS but I don't want a company to decide when and to whom I endorse a product.
- jlarocco 13y agoThe "I didn't read the ToS" bit is getting a bit old. By now it's well known that companies put things like this in their ToS. People who claim to value privacy, or want to make sure their data isn't used in a certain way should be reading the ToS.
- a3n 13y ago> By now it's well known that companies put things like this in their ToS. By now it's well known that companies do things like this. Whether it's in their TOS is irrelevant, and whether you read it is irrelevant. You just have to assume they're going to do things like this, just like you have to assume that the NSA is reading your proctology results.
- freehunter 13y agoYou decide if you want to endorse the product. You +1'd the product. You left a review on the product page or one Google Maps. This data is already shown. If you didn't want people to see your +1 or your review, why would you +1 or review it?
- RexRollman 13y agoI don't understand why companies won't realize how creepy this is.
- psbp 13y agoHow is it creepy? You see an ad and also see that one of your friends voluntarily liked it. Won't this be a bit helpful if you're going to see an ad anyway?
- RodericDay 13y agoI'm personally more creeped out by all the people defending it. I hope they work at Google at least, it would make some sense.
- Helianthus 13y agoCorporate hell wouldn't be slowly inching along if there weren't people that didn't think parts of it were that bad.
- vetinari 13y agoThey are defending it, because they read TFA and understood, that basically nothing changed. If you wrote a review or +1ed something, you published it (whether for all, or for some circle). Now this review will show for exactly the same audience alongside the ads for the same product/page/whatever. This is just a knee-jerk reaction by people who didn't bother to read what it is about, just went straight into "bad Google" mode.
- Helianthus 13y agoThis might be a minor degree of "bad Google," but it still is firmly in the realm of "bad Google." If you're arguing that this is a tiny sliver in the greater scheme of things, I'll agree with you. If you think this sliver doesn't reflect the larger direction Google is taking (and everything that comes with it), I would disagree.
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- lettergram 13y agoThis seems no worse that than Facebook's advertisements (slightly less freaky in fact). All it shows is that you endorsed something, who cares? They already have your data all they are doing now is saying "oh hey your friend +1'd this"
- Camillo 13y agoI agree. The only problem is when it's done fraudolently. Just two weeks ago I was somehow added to a random Facebook event in another country; I think it might have been done with click hijacking.
- ape4 13y agoBoth Facebook and Google doing this is horrible. Whatever happened to: don't be evil.
- gdilla 13y agoFB never said that. And google stopped saying that a while ago.
- ape4 13y agohttp://www.google.com/about/company/philosophy/ http://www.google.com/about/company/philosophy/ "You can make money without doing evil."
- night815 13y agoMy understanding is that Facebook uses random peoples name/picture to promote anything they want. Google uses your Name/picture to show that you have reviewed/+1/etc. something. Facebook is lying, which is Evil. Google is showing your friends things you chose +1, review, etc. People keep throwing around the word evil as if it's anything that they disagree with.
- ScottWhigham 13y agoI failed to see how my choice to endorse something publicly (which is what a +1 is) makes Google "evil". The whole idea of +1/Like is to show approval/agreement. The keyword in that sentence is "show".
- klenwell 13y agoIf you received a cut of any revenue for an ad that you appeared in (sort of like AdSense), is this something you would opt into? I'm assuming this isn't part of the deal. But that would make it more interesting. Edit: Oh, it's opt-out? Poor choice, Google.
- calbear81 13y agoI would be interested in opting in to share more data if I get a cut of revenue.
- jaredsohn 13y agoI see no problem with this at all if you make an actual review. One problem with +1 (and Facebook's Like) is that as a user you aren't necessarily doing that to endorse; you might just want to subscribe in an RSS-like sense.
- tobyjsullivan 13y agoThat's like buying McDonald's to test your credit card still works, then complaining your car trunk is full of uneaten happy meals. If you're going to misuse a product to get some unique result you desire, expect the company that built it to continue with their original vision of the product's purpose.
- tiziano88 13y agoI don't think +1 on Google+ subscribes you in the same way Like does on Facebook. You have to at least comment in order to receive notifications for new activity via Google+. If you +1 something, it is only to endorse it.
- tobyjsullivan 13y agoI seriously do not understand what the issue is. Why would you +1 something if not to have Google tell your friends and followers you +1'd it? Why would you comment on something if you don't want Google telling your followers you commented on it? Where is the issue? And, for what it's worth, Google claims to be "clarifying" this part of the terms of service, not changing it. I haven't verified what that means though.
- sheldor 13y agoOne might upvote or +1 something just for future reference (like the 'Saved Stories' on HN).
- miguelrochefort 13y agoYeah, that's not what it's for. Semantics matters, believe it or not. The world is not a hack fest. If you use a chainsaw to cut some vegetables, don't be surprised when you end up cutting the entire cutting board in half.
- adam12 13y agoI plus one something to show my appreciation to the content creator. I'm not doing it because I want to be a part of an advertisement.
- bradleyland 13y agoAdvertisement is a very broad term. There are some specifics here that scope the usage in a way that I can't find issue with: * The photos will only be used for "shared endorsements", not your typical AdWords advertisement * These endorsements will only be visible to "the people who you originally shared that activity with though" (quoting the article here) There is an exception to that second point, but it only applies to Google Play and Google+Local, both of which I would expect people already anticipate are more "public" than something like a generic +1. IMO, the only reason this is getting a lot of attention is because it's a change that can be easily spun in to something scary, which in turn generates page views.
- wtvanhest 13y agoInstead of continuing to attempt to make products better and appeal to more people and in a more meaningful way, they are trying to squeeze some profit out of a barely used platform. [1]Google+ didn't take off, at all. It never will if they fully monetize it before lockin. I would be smiling so hard right now if I were at Facebook. [1] http://mashable.com/2013/05/10/google-has-20-million-u-s-monthly-mobile-users-report-says/ http://mashable.com/2013/05/10/google-has-20-million-u-s-mon...
- dropawaywaytogo 13y agoSo now they're on par with Facebook and Twitter in that regard.
- mythz 13y agoYou can opt-out and it sounds like they're only using it on Content you've +1'ed. I only +1 content I like, and if my endorsement can somehow bring revenue to the content creator, I'm personally fine with it.
- marincounty 13y agoI use DuckDuckGo for most of my work. I only need Google 10% of the time. You will get used to using less, and less of Google. Google and Facebook need a wakup call.
- marincounty 13y agoTrue story. Google mail went into my camera folder on my Ipad and put up a picture of me. I know it sounds impossible, or I made a mistake. I honestly didn't. Am I the only one?
- deleted 13y ago[deleted]
- plg 13y agothere is an opt-out https://plus.google.com/u/0/settings/endorsements https://plus.google.com/u/0/settings/endorsements ps when I checked my settings were automatically "opted out" so unlike FaceBoob they are not opting people in by default and forcing them to proactively opt out yay google
- evan_ 13y agoWhen I went there the "Based upon my activity, Google may show my name and profile photo in shared endorsements that appear in ads." box was checked.
- quantumpotato_ 13y agoBox was unchecked for me. Have you been +1ing?
- msoad 13y agoLegal question: Google sent a notification instead of email for this change. Is it acceptable legally to send notifications for this kind of legal change?