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Google has decided that your privacy is no longer their "number one priority" and reversed their long-standing policy towards anonymous online ad tracking and user names; the Google DoubleClick advertising database will now be combined with all other information Google has on users, such as from Gmail and all other accounts and logins.
excerpt of the new policy:
We may combine personal information from one service with information, including personal information, from other Google services -- for example to make it easier to share things with people you know. [...] Depending on your account settings, your activity on other sites and apps may be associated with your personal information in order to improve Google's services and the ads delivered by Google. [...]
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article source:
https://www.propublica.org/article/google-has-quietly-dropped-ban-on-personally-identifiable-web-tracking
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Gaaark on Saturday October 22 2016, @03:12PM
So, they've gone from "do no harm" to "we're dicks".
Wil Wheaton sad.
--- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Nerdfest on Saturday October 22 2016, @05:24PM
Collecting the data is not evil in itself, but the ability and high temptation to use for evil is pretty much guaranteed.
(Score: 2) by tathra on Saturday October 22 2016, @06:31PM
the inevitable fascist government of the US - whether fully implemented this year if drumpf happens to win, or after the lengthy civil war his supporters start after he loses, or maybe in 2024 after hillary's two terms - is going to put all that information to all kinds of evil use.
(Score: 2) by Aighearach on Saturday October 22 2016, @08:23PM
Uh, any wannabe rebels are going to get a serious reminder what "antidisestablishmentarianism" means. They don't have to "accept" the election, but the results of the election will stand.
Remember, the government not only has most of the people on their side, they also have the military.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday October 23 2016, @04:32AM
Our government is elected by a minority of a minority. There are more than 318 million people in the US. The 2008 presidential election had record voter turnout. Fewer than 70 million people, or 22% of people voted for Obama. And that was huge turnout for a US election. 4 million fewer people voted for him in 2012 and 2016 has undoubtedly been one of the most disenfranchising political years ever so we can expect voter turnout to keep plummeting. Anyhow, the point being that our government most certainly does not have most of the people on their side. The only reason they're in office is because it's all but impossible for real change in politics with first past the post. We end up "strategically" working against our own best interest like a mass scale prisoner's dilemma.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday October 23 2016, @06:25PM
Liberals are "strategically" voting against their own interests in this election to prevent an aspiring despot from throwing out the constitution entirely (at least the status quo, as bad as it is, gives us more time to try to fix things), but there is absolutely nothing strategic about poor people voting to shred social safety nets, to ensure they have no upward mobility or medical care, to give tax cuts to the rich, to ensure that their wages always stagnate and never increase, etcetc. Red states and counties are the poorest [politifact.com] in the country and receive the most in Federal assistance, yet they continue to vote to make things worse and worse for themselves, meanwhile the facts show that [huffingtonpost.com] increasing minimum wage and increasing taxes on the extremely wealthy correlate to healthy, robust economies and low unemployement, while the opposite, stagnating wages and lowering the wealthy's tax burden (pushing that burden onto the middle and lower classes and forcing them to pick up these moochers' tabs) correlates to weak, stagnant economies and high unemployment.
(Score: 2) by KiloByte on Sunday October 23 2016, @12:20PM
the inevitable fascist government of the US - whether fully implemented this year if drumpf happens to win
Sorry to break it to you, but the candidate that's 99.999% likely to win is far, far more fascist than the douche. Their enemies get a treatment akin to Jews in '33: thrown out from companies they co-founded (Eich), massive ostracism campaign (Thiel), worldwide manhunt (Snowden), assassination attempts (Assange), sexual misconduct allegations (Trump himself, Assange).
Ceterum censeo systemd esse delendam.
(Score: 2) by tathra on Sunday October 23 2016, @06:09PM
not quite. she's an authoritarian to be sure, but drumpf is an extreme totalitarian [politicalcompass.org] and is very much a fascist [wikipedia.org]. hillary is evil too, for sure, but there is literally nothing that she can be hated for being/doing that drumpf doesn't also do except many times worse. hillary is for the status quo, which includes the inevitable slide towards fascism, but drumpf represents jumping immediately to it, concentration camps and all.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday October 22 2016, @09:51PM
Collecting the data is not evil in itself,
I think violating people's privacy can be evil in and of itself, depending on the circumstances.
(Score: 2) by Nerdfest on Sunday October 23 2016, @05:48PM
It's not really violating your privacy when you volunteer for it.