

Scroogled (2007) - jacquesm
http://blogoscoped.com/archive/2007-09-17-n72.html

======
jrockway
People like to use this as a reason for being worried about the privacy policy
change, but this story is about a government gone very wrong, not about some
company targeting ads to you based on ads you've clicked. The problem here is
that the government can go on warrantless fishing expeditions, not that Google
remembers that you dressed up as a suicide bomber and did 'shrooms. The
secondary problem is that the government has some problem with those things; I
know of no law that prevents you from entering the United States because you
were a suicide bomber for Halloween.

Yes, it's scary if an authoritarian regime with something against you knows
everything you've ever done in your life. But the solution is not to stop
living your life, it's to prevent the government from throwing away the
Constitution.

~~~
incongruity
There's also a lesson in there about what happens when anyone gains the power
that comes along with that much specific information about _anyone and
everyone_.

That much valuable information attracts not only the government, but also the
criminally motivated and those seeking power over others. All of it's scary –
and we're willingly going along with it, at the moment, because it's useful
for us, in the short-run.

~~~
jrockway
But this is nothing new. Remember Steve Jobs's FBI file that showed up here a
week or so ago? The government visited all his contacts and compelled them to
spill the details on what Jobs was really like. That's essentially the same
scenario described in this story, and it's already happening every day. But
not via Google search, via good old fashioned detective work.

~~~
incongruity
That approach doesn't scale and it doesn't allow for anywhere near the fishing
expedition opportunities that a centralized data repository would allow.

Also, that methodology means that data is only centralized _during or after_
an investigation and not en masse, before one – making it less likely that a
random person's data will be available for theft via a hack, etc.

------
julien_p
Previous discussion <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3285671>

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makeramen
can an editor add [2007] to the title please?

~~~
raganwald
Is it new to you?

~~~
makeramen
It is new to me, and probably more relevant now than it was in 2007. If
anything, noticing the date only amplifies Cory's apparent foresight at the
time.

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josscrowcroft
I liked this but the ending made no sense, felt like it should have been a few
paragraphs longer? Pretty abrupt.

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zackzackzack
I wrote something a few days ago that was inspired by this:
[http://zacharymaril.com/blog/2012/02/17/who-will-regress-
the...](http://zacharymaril.com/blog/2012/02/17/who-will-regress-the-
regressors/)

------
Karunamon
On one hand, Doctorow knows how to tell a pretty riveting tale.

On the other hand, this alarmism is just as absurd as it is on the ACLU's
"zOMG pizza!" flash presentation.

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rdl
The most implausible part of this story is that Google would care what Yahoo
is doing. Other than that, totally plausible, which is a bit depressing.

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joshstrange
Old story but great message, I always send this to people that don't
understand how important privacy on the internet really is

~~~
tomjen3
It is not important. What is important is that the government never gets its
hands on it. Google will just show you more accurate ads.

~~~
ramy_d
Who are you to make that kind of guarantee?

~~~
ramy_d
edits don't seem to work so here: Think of what happened to RIM in India.

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aorshan
I've never read this before. I think the thing that scares me the most is how
easily I can see some of these things happening.

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trevin
Here's an audiobook version of this:
[http://ia600307.us.archive.org/26/items/WithALittleHelpMp3s/...](http://ia600307.us.archive.org/26/items/WithALittleHelpMp3s/05-Scroogled_-
_Cory_Doctorow_-_With_a_Little_Help.mp3)

~~~
ranit8
Why would someone downvote this? Anyway, found a page for the whole podcast
series. <http://recall.archive.org/details/WithALittleHelpPodcasts>

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GigabyteCoin
Great writing as always.

My favorite line:

"Give it five years, [Google]’ll know how many turds were in the bowl before
you flushed"

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tomelders
That's enough to make me hack my Safari Binary and setup Duck Duck Go as my
primary search.

~~~
jrockway
But the imaginary CIA collects your search queries right at your ISP. And
they've broken SSL.

~~~
Drbble
Imaginary? CIA tends to operate abroad. FBI see the main domestic spy agency.

