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Google Buzz privacy invasion
Feb. 14th, 2010 01:32 amIn my world, not being evil includes not unilaterally publishing someone else's address book complete with indicators of the most contacted addresses, and especially does not include deliberately making it almost impossible for even tech-savvy users to turn off the unsolicited share and enjoy experience. It particularly does not include an actively deceptive "turn off" option that merely removes it from your own view while leaving your information exposed to world+dog.
My jules.jones@gmail.com address is public, deliberately so. The email addresses it has had contact with are *not* public, deliberately so. And most of the other gmail addresses I own are equally not public -- at least until Google decided that All Your Privacy Are Belong To Us.
Of course, Google CEO Eric Schmidt thinks that only the Important People such as himself are entitled to any online privacy. But until now Google actually has been reasonably careful not to make public that information which it was given in the expectation it would remain private.
I am Not Amused by the current demonstration of privilege. I'm not a Google-hater -- I lived within easy walking distance of the Googleplex, one of my regular drinking chums was a Googloid at the time, and as a result I hold one of the first few non-employee GMail accounts. But equally, I've seen how deeply the Googloids can buy into the "don't be evil" mantra, to the extent of genuinely believing that the company's fuck-up de jour is a boon to mankind. (Don't ask me about their embrace and extend attitude to other people's copyright, just don't.) It would not surprise me in the slightest if there are a bunch of people in Mountain View going "but what did we do?" right now.
As a result of this particular fuck-up, I'm going to have to spend several hours going through my accounts making sure I've jumped through all the myriad of hoops needed to make sure the damn thing is turned off and stays off -- and that anything which was exposed in the meantime is taken down. Really not amused by that prospect, even though I'd have probably found Buzz useful on my public account had it been introduced in a sane manner with default options that protected privacy.
There's what looks like a good Google privacy checklist on PC World. I'll be working my way through that when I have an opportunity later this week. Google have backed down on some of the most obnoxious problems, but they're going to take their own sweet time about applying the changes to those accounts which have already been compromised.
My jules.jones@gmail.com address is public, deliberately so. The email addresses it has had contact with are *not* public, deliberately so. And most of the other gmail addresses I own are equally not public -- at least until Google decided that All Your Privacy Are Belong To Us.
Of course, Google CEO Eric Schmidt thinks that only the Important People such as himself are entitled to any online privacy. But until now Google actually has been reasonably careful not to make public that information which it was given in the expectation it would remain private.
I am Not Amused by the current demonstration of privilege. I'm not a Google-hater -- I lived within easy walking distance of the Googleplex, one of my regular drinking chums was a Googloid at the time, and as a result I hold one of the first few non-employee GMail accounts. But equally, I've seen how deeply the Googloids can buy into the "don't be evil" mantra, to the extent of genuinely believing that the company's fuck-up de jour is a boon to mankind. (Don't ask me about their embrace and extend attitude to other people's copyright, just don't.) It would not surprise me in the slightest if there are a bunch of people in Mountain View going "but what did we do?" right now.
As a result of this particular fuck-up, I'm going to have to spend several hours going through my accounts making sure I've jumped through all the myriad of hoops needed to make sure the damn thing is turned off and stays off -- and that anything which was exposed in the meantime is taken down. Really not amused by that prospect, even though I'd have probably found Buzz useful on my public account had it been introduced in a sane manner with default options that protected privacy.
There's what looks like a good Google privacy checklist on PC World. I'll be working my way through that when I have an opportunity later this week. Google have backed down on some of the most obnoxious problems, but they're going to take their own sweet time about applying the changes to those accounts which have already been compromised.