Acidus wrote:

Google CEO Eric Schmidt: "If you have something that you don't want anyone to know, maybe you shouldn't be doing it in the first place,"

... ...

Yeah, I barked about that on facebook/twitter. Get used to this. Remember: "no whammies. Databases for you. Money for me."

Acidus wrote:

Google CEO Eric Schmidt: "If you have something that you don't want anyone to know, maybe you shouldn't be doing it in the first place,"

... ...

I was not pleased to hear that either, but I'm waiting for a full interview transcript for context before I get uber worked up.

Still, even out of context that is not a nice thing to say.

Acidus wrote:

Google CEO Eric Schmidt: "If you have something that you don't want anyone to know, maybe you shouldn't be doing it in the first place,"

... ...

This was an enormously stupid and hypocritical thing for him to have said, particularly in light of the CNET incident, and it will be requoted and requoted for years to come.

However, its worth noting that Google recently created a Dashboard that allows users to control what information is collected about them. A snippet from this news report:

Dashboard let me review my Web searches going back to 2006. Long-forgotten queries about airline tickets, books and magazine articles, a new clarinet for my daughter - they’re all still there.

I recommended this when I spoke on the subject of privacy at WWW2007. But its really an extension of Greg Conti's research, in which he developed tools that allow users to see what information Google is collecting. Conti is quoted in that news article.

It doesn't really solve the problem - the privacy problem is a collective problem and this is an individual solution. Its more a negotiating position if you will. You insist that you need all this information in order to operate these services - can you at least empower me to see what you've collected and to opt out? On a certain level it provides Google with a way of shunting uncomfortable questions about privacy by allowing concerned people to opt out as it applies to them personally. However, we will face the broader social implications of the privacy problems posed by these systems regardless of whether or not we individually opt out.

Nevertheless, I'm glad that Google did this. Its an important step. It could help raise people's awareness.

More on the subject here.

Decius wrote:
It doesn't really solve the problem - the privacy problem is a collective problem and this is an individual solution. Its more a negotiating position if you will. You insist that you need all this information in order to operate these services - can you at least empower me to see what you've collected and to opt out? On a certain level it provides Google with a way of shunting uncomfortable questions about privacy by allowing concerned people to opt out as it applies to them personally. However, we will face the broader social implications of the privacy problems posed by these systems regardless of whether or not we individually opt out.

You're right. It doesn't solve the problem. Because that's not the problem. The problem is not whether people can opt out or not. At some point, opting out will make you a second class citizen, or even a criminal in some places, because having data about you will be required to make certain transactions or participate in basic services. This is akin to giving your SSN now in order to apply for licenses, rent, or even make a purchase.

The real problem is that the more data is gathered about you (whether you opt in or not), the easier it will be to drive analytics against you - whether it's by sanctioned bodies or not. As it is, the current model for all social networks is to derive valuation based upon your data, ie. someone gets rich off of you and your activity. This will only increase.

I don't care if Google said "Don't Be Evil". The truth is that they will be one of the biggest benefactors of the dissolution of privacy. I'd consider that Evil.

flynn23 wrote:
The problem is not whether people can opt out or not. At some point, opting out will make you a second class citizen, or even a criminal in some places, because having data about you will be required to make certain transactions or participate in basic services.

I should be clear - what I was discussing at WWW2007 wasn't about providing people with a way to opt out of services - it was about providing a way for people to opt out of data collection while still using the services...

Basically - these services need to collect data in order to do business. This causes some social problems, leading people to collectively push for log/data destruction (at least in the EU). What can these services do?

They can empower their users to see what is stored about them and control it themselves. This can work for two reasons:

1. These services don't need to know everything about me in order to do what they do. They can get by on some information. If I have the ability to control what they are storing, I can remove anything sensitive and let them have the rest of the information.

2. People who complain about the privacy impact can be shunted at the dashboard, where they can opt out of some or all the data collection while still using the service - its an answer that will satisfy a significant number of critics.

Basically, its a middle ground position that allows the services to operate and people to use them without the same privacy impacts and without a broad scaling back of the information the services have access to.

So far, in the US, the political will to reign in data collection by these services has been too weak to make this option attractive, but its possible, neh likely, that Canada and the EU will get there first as their privacy regulations are far more sophisticated then our own.

In fact, what Google has done with Dashboard is not nearly this sophisticated. A huge let down after reading the press coverage.

My post about Google Dashboard quoted this news report:

Dashboard let me review my Web searches going back to 2006. Long-forgotten queries about airline tickets, books and magazine articles, a new clarinet for my daughter - they’re all still there.

When I posted this I hadn't logged in yet - and in fact Dashboard doesn't do that. Your search history comes from Google History which has been around for a while, but only works if you search while logged in. When you access Google History Google goads you to download a toolbar so they can watch your web surfing all the time, and not just when you are accessing one of their sites.

Are you better off not having a Google Account - and thus not having a Google History?

Either way, they know, they have the data, but if you tie your searches to your account, they know even more, but in exchange you get to know something too.

Why do I feel like I'm dealing with a drug dealer?

(Worse, if you remove things from "Google History" they don't actually get removed from Google's logs - only from the history service.)

Decius wrote:
Why do I feel like I'm dealing with a drug dealer?

Worse than a drug dealer. The Mob.