Summary of Google's New Initiatives

[jesse_the_k]

One of my favorite fic writers, runpunkrun, has now produced some vital non-fic:

Google's corporate motto "don't be evil" has now been simplified to the much more concise "be evil"

Xe's done the legwork, folks, and it's not pretty. In particular, Google wants to consolidate your YouTube identity with your Google Mail identity. If you wish to keep your fannish and RL pursuits separate, follow the link and learn the steps to take.

Comments

[sonia]

Thanks for the link! I downloaded ghostery, recommended in one of the comments.

(side rant) I hate how it has become normal to be tracked and deluged with advertising. Service reps sound so startled and confused when I ask to be taken off their mailing lists. The *family farm* I got my Thanksgiving turkey from called me recently to ask for my email address. I said, "That's inappropriate!" I gave them my phone number for ordering purposes only. I expect better from small operations but I guess they're as desperate as anyone else.

[jesse_the_k]

I expect better from small operations but I guess they're as desperate as anyone else.

You have named that tune, I'm sad to say.

I'm mostly indifferent to providing email address -- I choose when to attend to them (or delete them). But I hold my telephone number oh-so-tightly to my breast. I developed a profound loathing for the ringing telephone when my mother was dying in 1990: every call would be an unpleasant decision; a well-meaning but pro-forma contact from folks I'd worked hard to disconnect from; or another member of my family.

Thank the FSM for caller ID!

[sonia]

That does sound like a deeply unpleasant aspect of a difficult time. Even pleasant calls are a noisy unscheduled invasion of a private home. (My, don't I sound like a curmudgeon. Which is kind of my point. It's considered antisocial to defend one's home and privacy.)

I've thought about caller ID, especially when the robocalls piss me off, but I don't want to pay a monthly fee to a large unethical corporation to protect myself from privacy-invading behaviors.

The thing about that farm is that I don't just want to support local businesses - I want to support ethical businesses. I'm disappointed that they think their profits are more important than my time and privacy. They used that phone number long after our business was concluded to further their goals, not mine. (Again, I feel curmudgeonly about the fact that this bothers me.)

To wind back to your original post, it pisses me off to have to use two different browsers to keep google identities separate. I already put in a lot of extra work by blocking cookies, since I have to hand-enable them per site to do transactions, or even to view some sites. Corporations aren't just stealing our data, they're stealing our time and energy in resisting them.

[jesse_the_k]

Curmudgeonhood is the price of deep understanding of the system. Ignorance = bliss &c. WisCon concom has taught me many things; it was in fact sparkymonster who schooled me that enjoining members to "follow their common sense" was not a successful path. The sense is held in common by isolines of cultural and class; we do much better when we're explicit about the goals we hold together.

Caller ID is part of the package with a cellular phone, inasmuch as it recognizes any contact I've stored in the phone. I've got a $15/month texting phone which lets me know if I know the caller. Net10.com, a subsidiary of Tracfone. The reception ain't wonderful but it's enough.

[sonia]

Can you tell me more about the link between curmudgeonhood and common sense? I can feel it, but can't quite put words around it.

Ah, I do have caller ID on my cell phone, but not on my land line. Someday it will go, but not yet, partly because I have DSL through it.

[jesse_the_k]

Sorry to be exceptionally terse and opaque there.

"Curmudgeon" is an ambiguous term. First, it's awful fun to say. Second, it can be a badge of hard-earned wisdom. Third, it can herald rigid thinking and obstinacy.

When I'm feeling curmudgeonly, I often find the phrase "why can't they just use common sense?" ready to trip off my lips. Because curmudgeonhood generally follows many years' experience with the issue to hand, and because "common sense" is an effective way to package my point-of-view. Calling on common sense asserts that anyone would share my value or goal or path or whatevs.

I was involved in the production of con-wide publication on the topic of Good Behavior, and I was in a curmudgeon-rich room. "Common sense" was called on many times, and that's when I understood the wisdom Sparky had shared earlier that day: "common sense" as a working benchmark requires homogenous groups with similar experiences.

[sonia]

Ah, thanks for explaining. I love "curmudgeon-rich room." Turns the whole concept on its head! I was using "curmudgeon" as a stand-in for "too critical," but I think the more positive meanings apply as well. Double-binds do make people grumpy, after all. (Don't have boundaries? Your fault you got invaded. Do have boundaries? Too curmudgeonly!)

Sounds like I need more curmudgeons in my life!

[jesse_the_k]

Spot on re: the boundaries.

As with all things, moderation is good. Old people are stereotypically curmudgeons, although it's quite possible to have ossified layers of experience and opinion while still in the generative age.

I am a lemons from lemonade sort, when not provoked. Being surrounded by experts with decades of experience was at first intimidating, then thrilling, then annoying, then unremarkable.

[tdwf]

I find it hard to get upset that the G-overlord wants one policy for all of their properties. And I prefer having one login across multiple sites - I've created and thrown away youtube logins just because I couldn't even remember what username I picked two years ago. But I guess that means I'm not a regular youtube user.

And I'm sure they were already tracking you before the policy (not that existing behavior makes it right) - FB at least is sophisticated enough that they can track users across the web and measure their habits without having anyone log into anything, and then they can link it back to your FB login once you log back in. It's hard for me to believe Google can't or doesn't do the same. I think some congress-critters were giving FB a hard time about this, so maybe things are changing.

I followed the link to see what google thought of me (at the top of the linked post) and they told me I needed to opt back in to behavioral tracking before they could tell me anything.

Some resources for not being tracked I've dug up in the past few days (note that this is not about keep identities un-linked, it is more about avoiding targeted ads):

• Do Not Track - a few bit-players participate in this, but every little bit helps, I guess: http://donottrack.us/
• Opt out from on-line behavior tracking: http://www.aboutads.info/choices/ A lot of the legit on-line advertising groups participate in this one. This site is a clearinghouse that lets you set ~90 opt-out cookies in one go. Participation is voluntary by the advertisers, and since it is based on cookies if you regularly clear cookies set by advertisers you'll need to come back.
• Chrome extension to make the above opt-out choices "stick": https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/hhnjdplhmcnkiecampfdgfjilccfpfoe It's written by Google. I haven't found a similar plugin for Firefox.
• Firefox extension to do this just for google ads: http://www.google.com/ads/preferences/plugin/ Similar to the above, but for Firefox and only for Google behavior tracking. Written by Google.

[jesse_the_k]

Wow, great resources.

The Google connection which made me shiver is via Android on one's phone.

I'm lucky there with my "burner" cheapie.