Google's Growth Prompts Privacy Concerns

It's hard to know what to quote from the recent article Google's Growth Prompts Privacy Concerns, but here's a start: "Anne Rubin, 20, a New York University junior who uses Google's search, Gmail and Blogger services, says quality overrides any privacy concerns, and she doesn't mind that profiles are built on her in order to make the ads she sees more relevant. 'I see it as a tradeoff. They give services for free,' she said. 'I have a vague assumption that things I do (online) aren't entirely private. It doesn't faze me.'"

Now, I'm as paranoid as the next guy (and don't think I'm not keeping my eye on him to make sure he doesn't get out of line!), but I sort of agree with Anne up there. The big problem I see with internet stuff in general is the presumption of guilt when you can tie disparate chunks of data together. With a name like mine (which, in case you don't live in this state, is the Minnesota equivelent of "John Smith"), I don't want folks trying to pair up what various "Eric Larsons" have been buying/surfing/etc... though, as long as it's just to target ads at me and not to place value judgments or file false criminal charges, I suppose it doesn't matter.

Comments

Norman Larson said…
Eric: equivelent isn't in the dictionary -- equivalent is.
July 18, 2005 at 8:23 AM
emlarson said…
You know what's ironic? I never have spelled it right, so when I wrote it "equivalent" -- with an 'a' -- I figured, "No, that must be wrong," so I changed it.

All this would have been avoided if I rememberd to run Spell Check on my post, but... I didn't.

Maybe, someday, Google can wire up Blogger with an option like Outlook has to "always check spelling before posting". :)
July 18, 2005 at 9:53 AM
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