The line between what is ok for the internet community to know and what isn't ok is directly drawn by the person. If you don't want Google or Facebook to know about your life, then don't sign up and post your life details on their FREE pages. There is a reason why they can be free to us, and I bet you can guess what it is. They sell stuff. Google "does aol read email" and the results will be a lot different than the results for "does google read email." One is free and one is not.
Also, I don't think there is a huge difference between the internet community and a physical Geneva NY community. There are good guys and bad guys in both places, the internet just seems more secretive because its all faceless interaction. Those who are supposedly stalking you online are google employees and probably could care less about your emails to your wife or buddies about your weekend in Vegas. I think you are much more likely to run into a more dangerous stalker in the mall parking lot. And so what if they know where you live, that would be an easy thing to figure out anyway. Along the same lines, the school directory taken as a breach of privacy? Are you kidding? It's completely normal and should be treated that way.
One more thing, all this Patriot Act stuff from the government is for our own good and I don't buy the whole skeptical of the government movement. If they need to scan everything in order to find anything then thats fine with me. If you have forgotten, they happen to be on our side and are the most legit form of policing the internet has.
-Tom
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3 comments:
Really interesting post. So your argument is that if something is provided free of charge, then those who provide that something can determine its terms of use without fully informing those who use it?
But what if I pay for something? If I pay Time-Warner for internet access, but then google keeps track of my searches and the links I click on when the search results come up, should they pay Time Warner? Also, if google advertises to me (and companies pay for those ads) does it make sense that google is the owner of the information that I generate? How come?
The entire basis of GMail is to provide an "ad service." They state their mission clearly in the Terms of Use, which no one bothers to read anyway, and state clearly that they will read your email in hopes to direct ads to you. What we call email they deem a service to best provide you with what you "want." (http://www.google.com/mail/help/terms_of_use.html)
Time Warner does not collect data other than mac v. pc, aol v. netscape, etc. And they don't share info or email addresses with third parties. (http://www.timewarnercable.com/privacyandterms.html) So the only problem comes up when you actually use google.com, which they have no control of. At that point though, as a user of google's site, why don't they have a right to look at where their users go? Who owns the searches you do while on google, I would argue that google does. It's their backyard, they just let us play in it.
Because you generate the info while on their site, they have every right to look at it. What they did in San Fran is the same exact premise, only on an entire city, allowing them to basically kknow everything about everyone who uses their wireless system. SO all the clicks and stuff in san francisco actually rightly belongs to google.
-Tom
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