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Julien Voisin blogs:
Today, I updated my Firefox, and had a new icon on my toolbar: pocket. I took at quick look at the ToS and privacy policy; here is my tl;dr:
Read it Later, Inc. is collecting a lot of intimate information and is tracking you.
When you share something through Pocket with a friend, the emails contains spying material using malware-like techniques to track your friends.
They are sharing those information with trusted third parties (Could be anyone they are doing business with.).
The policy might change, and it's your responsibility to check Pocket's website to see if it has.
[...] The Pocket implementation is not an extension (while it was available as an extension), it's implemented in Firefox. You can not remove it, only disable it, by going in about:config, since this option is not available in the preferences menu.
What the hell is pocket? on Mozilla's site:
The Pocket for Firefox button lets you save web pages and videos to Pocket in just one click. Pocket strips away clutter and saves the page in a clean, distraction-free view and lets you access them on the go through the Pocket app. All you need is a free account, an Internet connection and the Pocket button.
Original Submission
(Score: 3, Insightful) by TheGratefulNet on Monday July 13 2015, @06:04PM
you miss a major point about google being evil. lets agree, just for now, that they don't sell YOUR info to others. how sure are you that the so-called anonymous data they have is truly not able to point to who you are?
that aside, do you not worry that the government (ALL of them, sigh) are salivating at google's data store and, like pirates on the old sea, they have the might and they will take what they want! they're happy to let folks like you believe that google is keeping your data safe, when its the governments that ALLOW google to grow to its size.
google is a proxy. a government proxy. 'private enterprise' is the new way for governments to spy on people. they learned this and they got VERY good at it.
no, google is evil because of who made them that way. I have lots of suspicions that google has always (since day 1) been in bed with the government. doesn't it seem odd to you that they'd get so big, so fast, and with so much power on 'search, alone' ? that does not pass the smell test to anyone who thinks about it.
google was supported and encouraged to do what its doing. again, its a pet proxy for all governments. direct line to google's data (if you believe there is calea procedures in place, again, that is jus for show. the real back doors don't need to have permission or a court order to have data flow to washington).
"It is now safe to switch off your computer."
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 13 2015, @08:34PM
that does not pass the smell test to anyone who thinks about it.
Why not? Do big numbers confuse you?
Google became popular because they were a hell of a lot better than the competition when they started. I remember the bad old days of Alta Vista. They were really a lot better than any of the other search engines, and that is all they really needed. Ok, they also needed to figure out the advertising, or they would have died out. But they did that well too.
If Google had no redeeming features when they became popular, then that would be suspicious, but that wasn't the case.
(Score: 2) by khedoros on Monday July 13 2015, @09:17PM
doesn't it seem odd to you that they'd get so big, so fast, and with so much power on 'search, alone' ?
Not particularly. They came along when there were a dozen commonly-used search engines, each of which provided somewhat "meh" results. I remember searching for things across multiple engines because different ones tended to index different pages. Google was the first engine that I knew that tended (even at the beginning) to have what I wanted in the first couple pages of results, and they continued to get better over time, relative to their competition. When most other engines provided a "web portal", Google stuck to search, built up their name, and then started adding extra crap. And if it hadn't been Google that hit that trajectory of success, it would've been whichever other engine had made similar advancements the fastest (or, at least, marketed themselves the best). I think we're just looking at a case of selection bias.
(Score: 2) by Nerdfest on Monday July 13 2015, @11:29PM
As far as I'm aware, Google data on you is not anonymous. They know *exactly* who you are. They just don't sell the data, they use it to target ads at you.
Yeah, government is a separate matter, and unavoidable unless they move all operations out of the US. I'm kind of surprised they haven't started. Even in that case, the uS government is trying to force companies to release data even for foreign data stores (Microsoft in Ireland). It needs to be a complete exit.
(Score: 2) by TheRaven on Tuesday July 14 2015, @04:17PM
They just don't sell the data, they use it to target ads at you.
There are lots of ways around this. One example where someone tried this academically involved running a discount coupon ad for pizza. They asked Google to show it to gay people in a certain area. If they fill in the coupon, then you have their name and address, even if they don't then you can add a tracking cookie and watch them on any web sites that you control if they click the ad.
sudo mod me up
(Score: 2) by Nerdfest on Tuesday July 14 2015, @04:33PM
True, although I'm not sure you could trust the data to be completely accurate, although in general it probably would tend to be.
(Score: 2) by GoonDu on Tuesday July 14 2015, @01:37AM
I would like to put a tinfoil on you but I have to put one on myself as well. The problem is that you may trust the Google of today not to sell or share private data, but what about the Google of tomorrow? The biggest problem is still the potential that Google has over you and the need for more transparency, I trust them now not to share my data but a policy change, a government push or some sociopaths (does not have to be the CEO) who has access to product's data (the users) is all it need to get the ball rolling. It's too risky.