June 1st, 2007
Beware: Google's big, bad privacy risks
Once again, Google’s (lack of a meaningful) privacy policy is prime “news” fodder.
For serious analytical debate over what a Google world really implies for the world’s citizens? NO.
Remember when Google CEO Eric Schmidt sent “Big Brother” shockwaves throughout the blogosphere? It seems like yesterday (it almost was).
Schmidt’s reveries of a not quite real super personalized Google search yielded the likes of: “Does Eric Schmidt want to sniff the armpits of my mind?” courtesy of Andrew Keen.
YES, the “elevated” headline is offered from the very Keen that rallies against “amateur hour,” at least in plugging his new book.
The latest Google privacy “flap” to gain big (not so serious) press is over Google Street View, the Amazon A9 “Block View” knock off.
SEE: Did Google really trump Amazon?
What issue is of primordial concern now?
“For Mary Kalin-Casey, it was never about her cat,” the New York Times assures us, under the posed photo of the proud owner of “Monty.”
The NYT professionaly produced photo of (not the real) record is a large, smashing close-up portrait of Kalin-Casy snuggling cat Monty by a sunfilled window overlooking a serene looking homeown American street.
The accusatory Google Street View “evidence,” on the other hand is dark and ominous. So dark, in fact that nothing is discernable, certainly not the “indictment” worthy ”zoom” of “Monty, her cat, sitting on a perch in the living room window of her second-floor apartment,” that the NYT writes of.
Perhaps that is why Kalin-Casy actually made her case to the sometimes “blog of record,” BoingBoing, rather than the touted “newspaper of record.”
The Google reaction? As I predicted upon the launch of Google’s “Street View”, the Google position is the same that Amazon’s A9 “Block View” position was:
It allows users to request that a photo be removed for privacy reasons, but the company had received few such requests.
Talk of smelly armpits and cuddly cats may be fun, for some.
The REAL Google big, bad privacy RISKS, however, are alive and well and impacting the world and its citizens 24/7, as I have been documenting and analyzing in depth.
CONCERNED ABOUT THE REAL GOOGLE PRIVACY RISKS? READ ON:
Google: $3.1 billion DoubleClick date with the FTC?
Why Facebook is scarier than Google
Google plays mind games with personal search
Why Google CEO is ‘harmless’
Beware: Google is NOT your privacy friend
Google zeal breeds more identity theft risks
Google user data cloud: Do you trust it?
Google vs. Google on privacy, or not
Google plots server farm land grab in Europe
Google, YouTube double down on user tracking: DoubleClick next up
Google scary now? Personal Health Records, sponsored by Google, next and
Google Analytics: Should Google be minding YOUR Web business?
