Privacy Thread

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

This is actually mighty awesome of Google, publishing data on government requests:

http://news.cnet.com/8301-1009_3-20125483-83/google-governments-seek-more-about-you-than-ever/

And indeed it would be sweet if Facebook and Microsoft followed suit, except for the bit where people would simply be all like "whut, why are you surprised?"

Also, the bit of unspoken cognitive dissonance here is how these companies, including Google, have no trouble collecting all this data for their advertisers, which is the reason why a lot of this data is kept in the first place, nor does any of these companies publish complete info on how much and what sort of data is actually used in this fashion (see also Facebook vs Europe).

BIG BROTHER IS WATCHING YOU.

Also,

Other countries seeking lots of user data were India (more than 1,700 requests involving more than 2,400 accounts), France, the United Kingdom, and Germany. Google says it complied most of the time in those cases, except in France.

[Triple Zero]

France has a bunch of solid privacy laws, apparently.

[Faust]

France has a bunch of solid privacy laws, apparently.

They pride themselves on the Liberté egality fraternity craic and take it very seriously and the people are vocal about anything that bothers them, the national passtime is striking

[Cain]

France has a bunch of solid privacy laws, apparently.

They pride themselves on the Liberté egality fraternity craic and take it very seriously

Except when it applies to Algerians, Muslims and gypsies.

Also, France is about as heavily surveillanced as any other liberal democracy.  However, the proceeds of such surveillance tend to be for political gain, and are mostly mitigated by counter-surveillance (you reveal my mistress, I reveal your mistress etc) and so typically the effects are not felt outside of elite circles and the media, who are complicit in the whole thing.

It's not quite as corrupt as Italy, but, then, few things are.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

Ah, OK. Makes sense.

It's funny that the article just dropped that in there with no explanation, as if everyone knows about France. 

[Triple Zero]

Yeah, I only knew it because some commenter somewhere asked the very same question

[Cramulus]

I just got a letter from Verizon saying that they're going to start selling data collected from my smartphone usage. And that I can opt out of this by going to a website etc etc.... the annoying thing is that the letter came in the exact same junk mail card stock / font / format as the junk mail they send out every so often saying "NEW EVERY 2! GET A NEW PHONE WITH A NEW CONTRACT D00D!"

[Golden Applesauce]

Just a quick heads up, Facebook is now publishing articles that you read on other sites in your & your friends feeds.  I don't know how publicly they're sharing it, but being Facebook, it's probably maximum publicity.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

Just a quick heads up, Facebook is now publishing articles that you read on other sites in your & your friends feeds.  I don't know how publicly they're sharing it, but being Facebook, it's probably maximum publicity.

Yep, and you can't turn it off.

Funny thing is, they've pulled a ton of obnoxious stuff, and this is the first thing that has made me unconsciously, reflexively avoid logging on to Facebook.

[Rumckle]

I think you have to like the publications page or add it's app for it to show up, as I have read a couple of the articles my friends read (according to fb) and it didn't publicly announce it, but it did ask if I wanted to add the publications fb app.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

I think you have to like the publications page or add it's app for it to show up, as I have read a couple of the articles my friends read (according to fb) and it didn't publicly announce it, but it did ask if I wanted to add the publications fb app.

Nope. Me and several other afflicted friends have been going through contortions trying to figure out why the fuck the shit is on our feeds.

[Rumckle]

Ah ok, that's pretty fucking annoying then.

[Cramulus]

Is that still happening to you while you're logged out of FB?

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

Is that still happening to you while you're logged out of FB?

What I'm talking about shows up in my FB newsfeed... it's a little section at the top of my feed showing what news stories other people have recently read. Fucking pisses me off.

[LMNO]

It's times like this that I'm glad I usually only log on to FB on my phone.  I'm sure they'll find a way eventually, but for now it's pretty utilitarian.