

Google, Good to Know - jnorthrop
http://jnorthrop.tumblr.com/post/16225381728/google-good-to-know

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_delirium
It's definitely an interesting strategy, but I think it relies on two parts
that other companies aren't currently following which require real changes to
how they operate, not _just_ better PR:

1\. Use the data for something other than solely advertising or analytics,
which meaningfully improves the service in some non-trivial way. (Some other
companies do this, e.g. people are quite happy to give OkCupid as much
personal information as it wants, if they feel it'll improve matches.)

2\. Give you enough control over your data that people feel more comfortable
giving it in the first place. With Google, there are places where you can
_delete_ it; for example, if you let Google track your physical location in
Latitude, you can not only opt out again later, but you can even retroactively
delete all the location data that was ever collected. Most companies don't
want to allow that. Facebook, for example, famously provides no way for you to
actually delete your profile, in the sense of it really being deleted from
Facebook's servers.

Besides deleting it, Google also tries to make you feel like it's "your" data
in the sense that you can export it, via its "Data Liberation Front"
initiative that has no real counterpart in other data-intensive companies.

~~~
Drbble
Why do you think Google really deletes anything ever?

~~~
jnorthrop
Google's privacy policy states, "...or to delete such data at your request if
it is not otherwise required to be retained by law or for legitimate business
purposes."[1]

Of course the key phrase is "legitimate business purposes" but Google wouldn't
have included the "right to be forgotten" phrasing into their privacy policy
if they weren't willing to make a good faith effort to remove information upon
request. Otherwise it just puts them at risk of a lawsuit.

<http://www.google.com/privacy/privacy-policy.html>

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casca
Even worse, in the UK they've managed to trick the generally trusted national
charity Citizens Advice Bureau into endorsing their "Our cookies are for your
convenience!" claptrap. The CAB is featured prominently on their marketing all
over.

<http://www.google.co.uk/goodtoknow/>
[http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/google/8827809/Google-...](http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/google/8827809/Google-
teams-up-with-Citizens-Advice-Bureau.html)

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spindritf
Funnily enough NoScript throws a clickjacking warning on
<http://www.google.com/goodtoknow/online-safety/> when I try to play the
video.

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fl3tch
Especially concerning privacy, these cartoons remind me of the Qatar
censorship page:

<http://i.imgur.com/MfKOJ.jpg>

They are trying to make something nefarious look fun. I mean, it's great that
the barista down the street knows that like cream with my coffee, but I
wouldn't want her to know _everything_ about me. So why would people feel
comfortable allowing a distant corporation to "get to know them"?

