Google Gobblygook!!

[cousinlucky]

Here upon Staten Island the local newspaper on line forum has a listing informing readers about the " New Google Policy " going into effect on the first of March.

http://www.silive.com/news/index.ssf..._google_l.html

Some folks have asked me if I know anything about it and I told them that Google has been seeking my cell phone number but I am not giving it up. I tell folks that Yahoo has already forced me into using Fastmail which is a paid for service that Ozar hipped me to. I tell them about adblock and ghostery but that is about all the help that I can give them.

I do not understand all of that legal mumbo jumbo but I know I do not like my emails shared with advertisers and I do not want Yahoo trying to force me to have conversations with people in my address book just because we are on the internet at the same time.

At any rate I am seeking LF member help in explaining, in simple old man terms, what Google is doing so that I can pass it on!!

[Jonathan183]

If you want to receive targeted advertising and search results which depend on what you have searched for in the past use google ... otherwise use ixquick.com
For email I use gmail but have claws-mail set to use pop to pull mail information ... because I only login via a browser interface every 6 months or so to clear out old emails I don't see the targetted advertising very often. If I only used a single computer I'd setup the account to forward info via pop and delete the email so I would not need to login via a browser at all
Facebook etc I don't use, have no intention of using, and no nothing about how user information is being used except what's in the article you linked to ...
I sometimes use chromium ... never have installed or used chrome ...

[MikeTbob]

In a nutshell: Google is an advertising company now. They are combining Google + with youtube and Gmail, which is all owned by Google. The more Google knows about you, the better they can serve ads that reflect your needs/wants. This is where the privacy concerns come into play. Some folks are simply concerned that Google knows too much.

[cynwulf]

If you want to receive targeted advertising and search results which depend on what you have searched for in the past use google ... otherwise use ixquick.com

+1

Or DuckDuckGo.

For email I use gmail but have claws-mail set to use pop to pull mail information ... because I only login via a browser interface every 6 months or so to clear out old emails I don't see the targetted advertising very often. If I only used a single computer I'd setup the account to forward info via pop and delete the email so I would not need to login via a browser at all

Unfortunately it's not that simple - by using google mail you are being used for targeted advertising, whether you use the browser interface, IMAP or POP3. The browser interface only shows one small ad at the bottom of the page - that's not what google's targeted advertising is all about. If you use google mail, your emails are being automatically scanned for any kind of terms useful for marketing. For example if you sent an email to someone (or if they sent an email to you - even if it's from another provider) and that email contains a popular brand name, that will added to the profile google builds up about you. It means that when you visit any google affiliated sites you will see ads relating to that brand/product.

In a nutshell: Google is an advertising company

Yes. Google do not have it's users interests at heart. These kinds of services are not "free", that is to say that you are providing something to them in return. If you want to be sure, you need to host your own mail.

[oz]

For me, it's Startpage for any web searches (Google's search results, but with Ixquick's privacy), and Fastmail for webmail and other email services. It's very rare that I log into my Google accounts and I've been seriously thinking about totally abandoning them.

I really liked Scroogle (scraper) for web searches, especially their SSL link, but Google seems to be blocking the Scroogle servers quite a bit lately (claiming them to be bots).

[cousinlucky]

I wonder if Google will someday be shunned by the public, like Microsoft, for the contempt it displays
to the public that uses it??

[jayd512]

Probably not.
Mainly because, like Microsoft, Google has managed to integrate itself into the 'core' of what most folks envision when thinking about certain aspects of computing.

[SL6-A1000]

The trick is not to use them, thats the easiest way around it. If you don't want to be tracked or have information collected about you for there "targeted advertising"

There are plenty alternatives to gmail, google chrome, and google search.

E.g. Opera, Mozilla, Safari, hotmail, thunderbird, Microsoft Outlook, duckduckgo, yahoo etc... the list goes on

[fanderal]

The changes ... will remove some of the legal hurdles Google Inc. faces in trying to link information across services...

The New Google Policy is the same kind of policy insurance companies use to share info with subsidiary companies. Its to conform to existing law so the gov't won't start looking into their practices for violations. They promote it as a privacy policy to look good, and so those with little interest to know more than that might feel reassured.

Google is also a huge data mining company which collects and collates info. They're correct when they say, 'We'll never sell any info about you.' There's more money in leasing targeted lists to advertisers, again and again over the next 20 years, than selling them.

[cousinlucky]

Google isn't going to make the same mistake that Yahoo made! Yahoo demanded that you
accept their new " privacy policy " in order to look at your mail. Google, on the other hand,
says that if you use gmail after March 1, 2012 you consent to the new terms. I asked folks
to change their address books and list me under Fastmail; most did but some did not.

I get a lot of newsfeeds into my google accounts where there is plenty of storage. Nothing
of importance of mine goes into google.