[ELECTRON] it's a google world ....

Tue Mar 2 22:31:51 UTC 2010

Try crossing the line now google. Heh

Simon Yuill wrote:
> ---------- Forwarded message ----------
> 
> =================== english ===================
> February 2010 Newsletter
> Google special edition
> 
> ----------------------
> Contents:
> 
> * Google: creepy and evil
> * How to protect your privacy online
> 
> 
> Google: creepy and evil
> -----------------------------
> 
> Google's motto of "don't be evil" has been key to the company's success.
> In the year 2000, Google was the only search engine that did not
> privilege search results from advertisers, a significant factor in
> Google's rapid rise. Maybe Google's new motto should be "don't be
> creepy". Recently, CEO Eric Schmidt said Google is "trying not to cross
> what we call the creepy line" when it comes to gathering personal data [1].
> 
> However, Eric Schmidt wasted no time in crossing the creepy line when in
> December, he told an interviewer that "If you have something that you
> don't want anyone to know, maybe you shouldn't be doing it in the first
> place." In effect, the head of the corporation with the most
> surveillance data in the world has just announced that if you are
> innocent you should have nothing to hide. As many people have noted,
> Schmidt's statement is hypocritical and disturbing [2][3]. His logic is
> nearly identical to the totalitarian assertion that if you want free
> speech, maybe you shouldn't be saying anything controversial.
> 
> Eric Schmidt's comments are particularly troublesome in light of
> Google's recent changes in policy. In March of 2009, Google reversed its
> long held policy against behavioral surveillance [4]. Now, Google tracks
> the behavior of internet users in order to serve people more precisely
> targeted advertising. In February of 2010, the Washington Post revealed
> that Google again reversed existing policy by forging an information
> sharing partnership with the NSA (the super secretive electronic spying
> arm of the US government) in order to combat "cyberattacks" [5].
> 
> In both cases, we are told not to worry because Google will only be
> sharing data that has been anonymized (i.e. personally identifying
> information is removed). But there is plenty of cause for alarm. Recent
> research has shown how social media sites leak large amounts of personal
> information to their advertising partners [6] and how exceptionally
> difficult it is to create a dataset that cannot be de-anonymized [7][8][9].
> 
> In fact, the US defense department has a new initiative based exactly on
> this principle [10]. Called 'Digital DNA', the goal is to develop a
> digital fingerprint database much like the databases of DNA stored by
> many national governments. The goal is precisely to identify particular
> individuals from data commonly thought to be anonymous--the tiny traces
> of digital footprints we leave behind whenever we use a computer.
> 
> Despite all this, Google continues to assure its users that there is
> nothing to worry about. After all, if you have a lot of time on your
> hands, you can use the Google dashboard to adjust a complex array of
> privacy "self-care" settings. The problem is, the dashboard only applies
> to data directly tied to a Google account and it ignores all the many
> ways Google retains indirect and easily de-anonymized data on you. For
> example, it does not let you remove the location data Google keeps on
> you every time you send an email to a gmail user.
> 
> Google wants our trust. We are asked to put faith in the wizard behind
> the curtain who controls the largest assemblage of data the world has
> ever known. Google's new motto is clear: "don't be so evil that people
> start to notice." We are starting to notice.
> 
> 
> How to protect your privacy online
> ----------------------------------------------------
> 
> Working on this issue is really a social problem, not an individual
> problem. Asking individuals to spend a lot of time practicing 'privacy
> hygiene' is both impractical and politically dubious. Creating privacy
> online, in our opinion, should be done communally by supporting
> alternatives.
> 
> However, there are some things which we recommend that are mostly
> 'install and forget' measures, and don't require ongoing or tedious
> maintenance.
> 
> If you use Firefox, a web browser we recommend
> (http://help.riseup.net/mail/#use_firefox), you can install various
> extensions to use when browsing. Firefox is free software, and community
> members have written software to add new features, and anybody can
> download these extensions (see https://addons.mozilla.org/ for more
> information about Firefox extensions.)
> 
> Here are some Firefox extensions that we recommend:
> 
> * GoogleSharing (https://we.riseup.net/help/googlesharing)
> * Targeted Advertising Cookie Opt-Out (TACO) (http://taco.dubfire.net/)
> * Adblock Plus (http://adblockplus.org/en/)
> 
> You can also do web searches at https://ssl.scroogle.org/ - add this
> to your search engine menu by adding
> https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/12506
> 
> ----------------------------------------------------
> [1] "Google trying not to cross 'the creepy line'"
> http://news.cnet.com/8301-30684_3-10392435-265.html
> 
> [2] "Google CEO Eric Schmidt Dismisses the Importance of Privacy"
> http://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2009/12/Google-ceo-eric-schmidt-dismisses-privacy
> 
> [3] "My Reaction to Eric Schmidt"
> http://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2009/12/my_reaction_to.html
> 
> [4] "Privacy Groups Rip Google's Targeted Advertising Plan"
> http://www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/article/161086/privacy_groups_rip_googles_targeted_advertising_plan.html
> 
> [5] "Google to enlist NSA to help it ward off cyberattacks"
> http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/02/03/AR2010020304057.html
> 
> [6] "Social networks make it easy for 3rd parties to identify you"
> http://arstechnica.com/security/news/2009/09/which-user-clicked-on-viagra-ads-ask-myspace-and-facebook.ars
> 
> [7] Mielikäinen, Taneli. 2004 "Privacy Problems with Anonymized
> Transaction Databases".
> http://www.springerlink.com/content/rukljup9muhtrpcu/
> 
> [8] Shmatikov, Vitaly and Arvind Narayanan. 2008. "Robust
> De-anonymization of Large Sparse Datasets (How To Break Anonymity of the
> Netflix Prize Dataset)".
> http://www.cs.utexas.edu/~shmat/shmat_oak08netflix.pdf
> 
> [9] Shmatikov, Vitaly and Arvind Narayanan. 2009. "De-Anonymizing Social
> Networks". http://www.cs.utexas.edu/~shmat/shmat_oak09.pdf
> 
> [10]"Pentagon Searches for ‘Digital DNA’ to Identify Hackers"
> http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2010/01/pentagon-searches-for-digital-dna-to-identify-hackers/
> 
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