

No joke: Al Franken rings alarm over Facebook, Google - daegloe
http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-57407347-93/no-joke-al-franken-rings-alarm-over-facebook-google/

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jaylevitt
"If you want a free e-mail service that doesn't use your words to target ads
to you, you'll have to figure out how to port years and years of Gmail
messages somewhere else, which is about as easy as developing your own free
e-mail service."

Senator Franken: I've developed my own free e-mail service (AOL). Exporting
from Google is WAY easier.

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overgard
Franken's stance on SOPA was idiotic, but what he's saying here doesn't seem
unreasonable.

My concern here is that I don't trust the guy when it comes to issues
technical, which I don't think he understands at all (from prior experience).
I guess "ringing the bell" is one thing, but I'm pretty concerned as to
whatever legislation might come from this.

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tensor
You can opt out of google targeted ads:

<http://www.google.com/policies/privacy/ads/#toc-optout>

As I understand it, you can install their opt-out plugin even if you do not
have a google account. It seems to me that this makes his entire argument
about Google moot.

~~~
pgeorgi
They still collect the data, ready for consumption by the next regime.

~~~
magicalist
"After you opt out, Google will not collect interest category information..."

This is really doubleclick out-out anyway, which it didn't seem like Franken
was talking about (and google isn't allowed to combine with your google
profile information anyway, per the doubleclick acquisition agreement (which I
assume is binding forever, even to the next regime, though I don't know for
certain)).

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skylan_q
"If you don't want your search results shared with other Google sites -- if
you don't want some kind of superprofile being created for you based on
everything you search, every site you surf, and every video you watch on
YouTube -- you will have to find a search engine that's comparable to Google.
Not easy."

Any alternative to google or youtube could also do this.

I imagine an ideal scenario for him would include limiting google's querying
share, youtube's video genres/types, and then legally forcing space for other
competitors.

If we allow the law to slap down Internet giants for fear of monopolization,
(which has been shown to be often temporary in this industry) then we've given
an inch. They'll use it as a precedent to take the whole field.

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skrebbel
It's amazing that a SOPA supporter can be so sane when it comes to privacy.
Barring some details (which, to _anyone_ except geeks like us are details),
he's perfectly right, and it's good that politicians are starting to realise
that privacy matters.

~~~
pasbesoin
I was going to make my own meta comment: I can no longer read anything from
Franken without wondering whether he is whoring for Big Entertainment.

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indubitably
Great, he's talking sense about Google & Facebook, and nonsense about SOPA.

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baddox
Why would anyone be surprised that Franken would espouse a completely
mainstream and widespread liberal position?

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dmoy
Wow, I voted for Franken. I guess I was being naive, but I was not expecting
him to spurt nonsense that he has obviously not looked in to.

I'm going to write an angry letter. Too bad it won't do anything :(

Guess I should have seen this coming with his nonsense about SOPA, and his
spectacularly weird line of questioning in Google & Yelp's appearance at the
Senate hearing last year.

~~~
skrebbel
Aren't you pulling the completely standard "omg someone said something bad
about us silicon valley guys" reflex?

It's in Google's and Facebook's direct financial interest to make privacy
difficult for you to attain, and your senator is pointing that out. How is
that a bad thing?

Tech companies aren't "the good guys" by definition.

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fleitz
tl:dr; "It would be a real shame if someone were to 'regulate' your industry,
how about I give you some protection from these regulators."

Personally, I'd love it if Mr. Franken passed a bill that forbid the US
government, its agents and assigns from using the data that these companies
collect. While we're at it we should probably stop those companies that
monitor the torrent sites from collecting that kind of information about
people too.

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yanw
He got thoroughly debunked by Danny Sullivan:

[http://marketingland.com/debunking-senator-al-franken-on-
goo...](http://marketingland.com/debunking-senator-al-franken-on-google-the-
internet-privacy-9121)

Grandstanding and pandering is what politicians do best. Franken is no
exception.

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gcb
And?

is this supposed to be written by a professional journalist? Two vague quotes
and no suggestion of the main point?

