So, if you search MemeStreams for Discover Hip Hop you'll be treated to a very entertaining fake television ad for a set of cassette tapes introducing you to the exciting world of hip hop. I about fell out of my chair when I saw the television ad for this product. The website doesn't do it justice. Little girls glueing crystals to their ipods and saying things like "Now you can Bling almost anything!" and "Now its easy to Bling!" These people are not joking. Its in rotation on the cartoon network. Call now!

Bling it on!

This post concerns MemeStreams and privacy. Its long, and the MemeStreams specific discussion is at the end. If you are concerned about privacy please read it.

dmv wrote:
] They probably weren't interested in figuring out what you were
] looking for.
] But evil?

I want to make it clear that I'm not particularly concerned about how Google plans to use the data Google is collecting. I'm sure they are merely interested in providing the best search experience they can provide. I don't think Google is "evil." I agree that the people who are spreading the "Google is evil" meme are usually exaggerating and typically think when companies become too large and successful they become evil by virtue of their success. I do not share this point of view.

However, I DO think Google is negligent. I'm concerned about how OTHER people who access this data use it. If you have a static IP, or if I know your Google cookie, or if I have information from your ISPs logs about dynamic IPs assigned to your account and the associated timeframes, I can subpoena all of Google's logs of every search you have performed going back as long as Google has been around. This isn't hypothetical. People are actually doing this.

Google, and most other search engines, refer to the webserver log information they retain as anonymous information in their privacy policies. This is misleading. This information is not anonymous. It is possible to tie it back to individual people accurately.

Because Google is such a good search engine a lot of people use it frequently. It is their gateway into the information on the Internet. They tell Google everything they are looking for. By looking at this log information I can get a pretty good idea of what those people have been thinking about. This is incredibly invasive. Big brother is recording everything you search for on the Internet. In certain circumstances this information will be revealed, particularly when you are a defendent in a civil or criminal proceeding.

While the same sort of log information might be obtained from any other website on the Internet, it is a particular concern in the context of Google, because Google is so popular, and because Google is a gateway into all of the other sites. You can learn much more about a person from their Google logs then you can from just about any other website's logs. Google is now in a unique position where their web server logs are an extremely valuable resource for surveillance if and when they fall into the wrong hands. Failing to handle that responsibility in an appropriate way is negligent.

This isn't happenning enough to have large numbers of people concerned about it, but it is happenning, and it is going to happen more over time. Ultimately, it is going to be a problem. The responsible thing for Google to do would be to expunge these logs after a reasonable period of time. Otherwise, people will eventually change the wa... [ Read More (0.4k in body) ]

Big Google and Big MemeStreams and Big Brother

StankDawg wrote:
] I posted about this on slashdot recently:
] http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=146731&cid=12292095

The only thing I'd dispute is that this occured around the time of the IPO. This has been a problem all along. Google's management simply does not understand that the kind of data retention they are doing fits under the "evil" category.

It doesn't matter that other people retain data like that too. In fact, MemeStreams retains all of its logs. Whats important is that the role that Google plays on the Internet puts them in a unique position to have an unusual amount of information about whats going on in people's heads. People are not careful about what they tell Google because they don't really understand that its all a permanent record. Google's privacy policy might resolve this for them legally, but it does not resolve it for real. It is a ticking timebomb and it will eventually explode.

Now, I ask, what search engine doesn't keep all of that data? Who has GOOD policies?

RE: Big Google is watching you

] The United States of America is on the verge of losing
] its competitive advantage, economist Richard
] Florida wrote last fall in a Harvard Business Review
] article based on his new book, The Flight of the
] Creative Class: The New Global Competition for
] Talent. It is facing perhaps its greatest
] economic challenge since the dawn of the industrial
] revolution. Even more provocatively, he later
] declared that Terrorism is less a threat to the
] U.S. than the possibility that creative and talented
] people will stop wanting to live within its
] borders.

This is an interesting take on recent red-blue strife.

Salon.com Books | The gay/hipster index

] Google currently does not allow outsiders to gain access
] to raw data because of privacy concerns. Searches are
] logged by time of day, originating I.P. address
] (information that can be used to link searches to a
] specific computer), and the sites on which the user
] clicked. People tell things to search engines that they
] would never talk about publicly -- Viagra, pregnancy
] scares, fraud, face lifts. What is interesting in the
] aggregate can be seem an invasiion of privacy if narrowed
] to an individual.
]
] So, does Google ever get subpoenas for its information?
]
] ''Google does not comment on the details of legal matters
] involving Google,'' Mr. Brin responded.

This shit is going to come to a head eventually.

The New York Times - Postcards From Planet Google

] With Google having released its new Google My Search
] History feature yesterday, I wanted to spin back around
] and look at where we stand in terms of search history
] offerings across a number of major search engines. I've
] done so in chart format below.

I have no idea why FURL is being catagorized as a "search history" system, but this comparison of different personal search history systems is likely of interest to many readers.

Comparing Search History Features

] My Search History lets you easily view and manage your
] search history from any computer. This feature of Google
] web search enables you to find information you thought
] you lost. And over time, you'll see an increasing number
] of relevance indicators in your search results that help
] you find the information you want.

So, Google retains all of this data whether you like it or not. If they are going to do that, its nice to be able to access it and put it to use. So this feature isn't really a bad idea. However, I'd rather have some local software doing this kind of profiling for me and have google politely toss my search history in the bin.

Big Google is watching you

] I was connected via a soldier on Iraq who sent me a
] picture of the radios they are using to set off the
] IEDs. Some of them are using FRS radios (Family
] Radios). The picture I saw was a Motorola TalkAbout
] 5000 (or something like that).
]
] What I did was make a FRS radio connected to a 7 watt
] external amplifier, and with a BASIC stamp controlling
] the main function buttons of the radio. It will hop through
] all 838 possible codes (22 channels, 38 privacy codes) and
] transmit for 1 second on each channel. Hopefully
] setting off the bombs before they drive through.

Very interesting. There is a picture of a nokia phone that someone has attached a small circuit board to. I assume the voltage for the ringer switches a relay that trips the explosive. Pretty tech savvy for an islamist fundi. They should find one of these guys for make magazine. :)

Check out the rest of this guy's Blog for an interesting look at Iraq.

It's complicated - IED in Iraq

We pushed an update out to the site today. This update includes changes to the MemeBox, an update logo graphic, and numerous behind the scenes type things.

Thanks to Joe Gawlik (terratogen) for the new MemeStreams logo!

Let Decius or I know if you spot any problems...

MemeStreams Site Update, 4/20/2005

] Initially, police will place six cameras in the Cleveland
] Park area of east Nashville and also downtown in the
] tourist-heavy Second Avenue and Broadway district.
]
] If the system works out, the department plans to buy more
] cameras and build a more expansive network throughout the
] city.

There were planning to record audio as well, but apparently they couldn't defend that politically. Soon everywhere you go outside the police will be watching you. Better be carefull about loitering in a parking lot. Especially if you look like you might be young or not sufficiently white or otherwise undesirable. I wonder if they'll start following people from bars back to their cars and radio dispatch to pull them over?

This isn't going on in Nashville because it is particularly needed in Nashville. Its going on in Nashville because people in Nashville aren't willing to resist it.

Nashville Police to install city wide video surveillance system.