Google is slowly becoming the new Big Brother (not of the TV kind, which I never watched and wouldn't know - I mean the 1984 kind). Maybe I exaggerated. Not slowly at all.
I just wanted to check whether I got any comments to vet, and voila, Google tells me that I should enter my cell phone number. In proper Serbian (not the mockery that tries to pass for one on Panoramio or in various other places around Google, and not even remotely resembling the ridiculous attempts of to use Google translate to, well, translate into Serbian), no less.
The excuse this time is that if I lose my password, they may not have a way to send it back to me, specially if the account was hacked and/or stolen.
Nice try, guys.
Let's see: if the account was in wrong hands, the new "owner" would then also have my cell phone number, eh? Worse than that, Google would have it. They keep adding features here and there that put more and more of your personal information together. Recently I got two invitations (in googlespeak: two invites) to join various groups on Panoramio, but I couldn't, because I didn't "upgrade" my account there. The upgrade would mean "join my accounts to use a single login" - IOW, Google would henceforth be able to put the dots together, and have my blog, some of my email, and my landscape pictures put together, knowing they're all done by the same person.
It gets worse: a few guys who tried G+ say that they all of a sudden had people offered up as contacts, people whom they barely know... actually, they only called them once, but that was on... an Android powered cell phone. On which they probably write a few emails as well - which probably the offered contacts did too, and Google was able to put two and two together. Add to this the street view imagery, combined with cell tower info and/or GPS signal that your phone may be broadcasting... Google knows where you live, whom do you call. Try to imagine how many of the googlets that you use every day call home and tell on you.
The question is not how much does Google know about you. It's how much you don't know about yourself that Google knows. While trying to answer, think of how far can you stick to "do no evil" while wielding such power.
p.s. I knew exactly why I opted for a Nokia cell phone, just days after they were saddled with a Microsoft commissar, with Symbian on it. No suspicious looking updates are almost guaranteed. I'm not saying I'm sure my phone isn't spying on me, just that the spy probably won't be getting new tools.
I just wanted to check whether I got any comments to vet, and voila, Google tells me that I should enter my cell phone number. In proper Serbian (not the mockery that tries to pass for one on Panoramio or in various other places around Google, and not even remotely resembling the ridiculous attempts of to use Google translate to, well, translate into Serbian), no less.
The excuse this time is that if I lose my password, they may not have a way to send it back to me, specially if the account was hacked and/or stolen.
Nice try, guys.
Let's see: if the account was in wrong hands, the new "owner" would then also have my cell phone number, eh? Worse than that, Google would have it. They keep adding features here and there that put more and more of your personal information together. Recently I got two invitations (in googlespeak: two invites) to join various groups on Panoramio, but I couldn't, because I didn't "upgrade" my account there. The upgrade would mean "join my accounts to use a single login" - IOW, Google would henceforth be able to put the dots together, and have my blog, some of my email, and my landscape pictures put together, knowing they're all done by the same person.
It gets worse: a few guys who tried G+ say that they all of a sudden had people offered up as contacts, people whom they barely know... actually, they only called them once, but that was on... an Android powered cell phone. On which they probably write a few emails as well - which probably the offered contacts did too, and Google was able to put two and two together. Add to this the street view imagery, combined with cell tower info and/or GPS signal that your phone may be broadcasting... Google knows where you live, whom do you call. Try to imagine how many of the googlets that you use every day call home and tell on you.
The question is not how much does Google know about you. It's how much you don't know about yourself that Google knows. While trying to answer, think of how far can you stick to "do no evil" while wielding such power.
p.s. I knew exactly why I opted for a Nokia cell phone, just days after they were saddled with a Microsoft commissar, with Symbian on it. No suspicious looking updates are almost guaranteed. I'm not saying I'm sure my phone isn't spying on me, just that the spy probably won't be getting new tools.
3 back and forths:
With all due respect, this reminded me of that mellon-head, umm, yes - Tijanić, who once allegedly said:
"The fact I'm a paranoid doesn't alter the fact someone keeps following me." :)
On the other hand, I have no grounds to oppose this. It's just that I surrended. I dont give a [BEEP!] what Google knows about me. I used to say "no" to Microsoft, I'd not hesitate to say "no" to Google, too. And then? Yahoo is consolidating the same way Google already did. The others try the same way... Integrated services actually became *congregated* services; you may opt out, but that would mean you're ex-communicated.
And what good would that bring? Не може се момо света, as our elders keep saying.
...мимо света, that is.
I still prefer to bark, even if that means that I may be a one-member resistance movement.
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