So YouTube, belonging to Google, is facing some odd privacy issues due to Viacom and a court ruling. But beyond that, Google has it's own specific Privacy issues.
Up until recently, Google did not have a Privacy Policy link. Why does this matter, and why is it even important? Well, considering how much Google logs - especially if you have a Gmail account, which is always logged in - this is quite important. At the very basic level, Google knows who you are, where you are from, where you are searching from, what you are searching for. They also know anything that is publicily available, that is attached to your name. Beyond that though, they are inferring things about you based on your search strings.
That's never been much of an issue for me. Stats are important. There are two specific spots I've always found myself curious with.
One: How anonymous are my stats? I don't doubt that my statistics are sold in some way. My web trends, my key words, my likelihood of clicking on a banner, my age group, my annual income, where I work. Are these attached to my name as well? I don't mind being logged, though I'd probably feel more comfortable researching bet wetting problems, if I know that my name won't be attached to that search string.
If you think this year's elections are interesting, imagine what things will be like when people our age group are running for president. "Presidential candidate John Smith's google records have been released. Among the search queries are..."
The second thing: Emails. The way Google's ad service works, in a nutshell, is it's related to the content on the page. When you're reading an email using your gmail account, you get ads that are specific to the content of your email. If your friend writes "Hey, when are you flying out here to visit me?" you will have ads saying "Get cheap airline tickets!" Somewhat of a deal, but perhaps not a huge deal.
But it's very likely, though I only hypothesize here, I consider it very likely all the same...that the content of these emails that generate ads is even logged. In other words, Google could be storing my emails - or at least portions of it - for their own purpose. Why would they do this? It builds up the Alishah Novin profile.
What happens is: based on the content of my emails, based on my search strings, my age group, where I live, Google's able to build a strong profile about me. If I'm searching a lot about computers, I'll start seeing a lot of computer ads. If I've been writing a lot of anti-Apple emails to my friends, they'll start showing me non-Apple computer Ads. If I write an email saying "My last laptop was an HP, and I loved it." I'll start getting more HP ads.
The profile also follows you. As you visit different websites, sites which don't have anything to do with Google, but use Google's ads, Google knows it's you visiting the site (as it's your browser that makes a request to Google's server through a third party site to pull the ads). So now, instead of getting ads related to the website - which was the former Google ads - you're getting ads geared to your profile.
Case and point: I recently was on a YouTube style site, watching House. Next to it was a Google ad about US Immigration, obtaining Visas, and doing it at the Vancouver/ Seattle border. This used to be a google ad of "Find funny videos online!"
In some ways, this is good. It just means I'll get relevant ads, instead of ads I have no interest in. Though it could be curious if you have an incuisitive friend looking over your shoulder, and sees some questionable ads from Google, based on your profile. The real concern though is - if Google can discern all this information about you, how PRIVATE is that information. Is Google only using it, never to release it, and eventually delete it? Or is Google saving it in their ever-growing network of computers, plotting your profile in time, watching you evolve from a college guy with the predicitable Google queries ("problems in super string theory," "could Descartes beat up Liebnitz?"), to young professional, to married man, to married man with children, and it goes on. Beyond that... is Google releasing this profile to third parties? Ad agencies, for example.
I don't mind if they profile criminals, and can even predict people becomming criminals. I'm all for that. It's very Minority Report. Beyond that though, there's a privacy concern.
Where's all this going? As I mentioned, up until recently Google did not have a privacy link on their home page. Just about every major website (and many minor websites) have a direct Privacy link on their site. Microsoft, Yahoo, Apple, Facebook, MySpace, and more.
It's somewhat of a legal issue - to my understanding, companies outside of California are required to display privacy policy links. California - where Google is based - has no such law. This meant for the roughly 6 or 7 years of being the powerhouse search engine, Google had not displayed any Privacy link. Not the greatest etiquette if you ask me.
Until recently, they were still without one. Then they were required to put one up within 30 days. On the 31st day, their Privacy link went up.
The best part - it doesn't even link directly to a privacy policy, but to a landing page for the privacy part. You then have to click you way around to find the policy.
All in all, I'm stumped at such a round-about approach - in particular for a company that's built it's reputation on being the direct approach.
Up until recently, Google did not have a Privacy Policy link. Why does this matter, and why is it even important? Well, considering how much Google logs - especially if you have a Gmail account, which is always logged in - this is quite important. At the very basic level, Google knows who you are, where you are from, where you are searching from, what you are searching for. They also know anything that is publicily available, that is attached to your name. Beyond that though, they are inferring things about you based on your search strings.
That's never been much of an issue for me. Stats are important. There are two specific spots I've always found myself curious with.
One: How anonymous are my stats? I don't doubt that my statistics are sold in some way. My web trends, my key words, my likelihood of clicking on a banner, my age group, my annual income, where I work. Are these attached to my name as well? I don't mind being logged, though I'd probably feel more comfortable researching bet wetting problems, if I know that my name won't be attached to that search string.
If you think this year's elections are interesting, imagine what things will be like when people our age group are running for president. "Presidential candidate John Smith's google records have been released. Among the search queries are..."
The second thing: Emails. The way Google's ad service works, in a nutshell, is it's related to the content on the page. When you're reading an email using your gmail account, you get ads that are specific to the content of your email. If your friend writes "Hey, when are you flying out here to visit me?" you will have ads saying "Get cheap airline tickets!" Somewhat of a deal, but perhaps not a huge deal.
But it's very likely, though I only hypothesize here, I consider it very likely all the same...that the content of these emails that generate ads is even logged. In other words, Google could be storing my emails - or at least portions of it - for their own purpose. Why would they do this? It builds up the Alishah Novin profile.
What happens is: based on the content of my emails, based on my search strings, my age group, where I live, Google's able to build a strong profile about me. If I'm searching a lot about computers, I'll start seeing a lot of computer ads. If I've been writing a lot of anti-Apple emails to my friends, they'll start showing me non-Apple computer Ads. If I write an email saying "My last laptop was an HP, and I loved it." I'll start getting more HP ads.
The profile also follows you. As you visit different websites, sites which don't have anything to do with Google, but use Google's ads, Google knows it's you visiting the site (as it's your browser that makes a request to Google's server through a third party site to pull the ads). So now, instead of getting ads related to the website - which was the former Google ads - you're getting ads geared to your profile.
Case and point: I recently was on a YouTube style site, watching House. Next to it was a Google ad about US Immigration, obtaining Visas, and doing it at the Vancouver/ Seattle border. This used to be a google ad of "Find funny videos online!"
In some ways, this is good. It just means I'll get relevant ads, instead of ads I have no interest in. Though it could be curious if you have an incuisitive friend looking over your shoulder, and sees some questionable ads from Google, based on your profile. The real concern though is - if Google can discern all this information about you, how PRIVATE is that information. Is Google only using it, never to release it, and eventually delete it? Or is Google saving it in their ever-growing network of computers, plotting your profile in time, watching you evolve from a college guy with the predicitable Google queries ("problems in super string theory," "could Descartes beat up Liebnitz?"), to young professional, to married man, to married man with children, and it goes on. Beyond that... is Google releasing this profile to third parties? Ad agencies, for example.
I don't mind if they profile criminals, and can even predict people becomming criminals. I'm all for that. It's very Minority Report. Beyond that though, there's a privacy concern.
Where's all this going? As I mentioned, up until recently Google did not have a privacy link on their home page. Just about every major website (and many minor websites) have a direct Privacy link on their site. Microsoft, Yahoo, Apple, Facebook, MySpace, and more.
It's somewhat of a legal issue - to my understanding, companies outside of California are required to display privacy policy links. California - where Google is based - has no such law. This meant for the roughly 6 or 7 years of being the powerhouse search engine, Google had not displayed any Privacy link. Not the greatest etiquette if you ask me.
Until recently, they were still without one. Then they were required to put one up within 30 days. On the 31st day, their Privacy link went up.
The best part - it doesn't even link directly to a privacy policy, but to a landing page for the privacy part. You then have to click you way around to find the policy.
All in all, I'm stumped at such a round-about approach - in particular for a company that's built it's reputation on being the direct approach.
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