Meanwhile
Google is about to give away the privacy of millions of users:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2008/jul/04/youtube.google
Google deigns to comply with a privacy law
Google has finally added a link to its privacy (or lack thereof) policy on its homepage following pressure from privacy advocates. A gaggle of US non-profits realised early in June that without a direct link to the policy, Google.com violated the California Online Privacy Protection Act. Sergey Brin and Marissa Mayer They …
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Friday 4th July 2008 11:52 GMT Ken Hagan
Further improvements to come?
From that blog, "we dropped the word "Google" (realizing it was implied, obviously)"
One could apply the same logic to the button labelled "Google Search". Would that be an improvement? I think so. After all, there's a massive multi-coloured "Google" about an inch above it.
Just remember, for the purposes of copyright, you read it here first.
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Friday 4th July 2008 13:57 GMT Hugo
28 my arse
"Ever since that night, this has been our discipline, and everyone who works on the homepage and its design knows the current number: 28. (That's the word count for the basic page if you are signed out, there's no promotional line running beneath the search box, you've set Google as your homepage and thus don't get the "Make Google Your Homepage!" link, and you count "©2008 Google" as two words.)"
Lots of ifs and buts in there.
Now if I got to google.com here in Finland (signed out, no promo line (even though it's not my homepage), count "©2008 Google" as two words), I get the English page and see 30 words, PLUS an extra four: "Go to Google Suomi": 34.
Which all goes to show this left leg in/right leg out mumbo is PRBS.
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Sunday 6th July 2008 00:56 GMT Anonymous Coward
They need to put on the front page in big red letters:
"we store everything you ever type in this box forever, along with your IP address which points straight to your computer, the time, date, page you came from, page you clicked on (etc) "
and see how many people would still use it, or still put their sensitive data in.
I know that when I first started using the internet nobody ever told me any of that.
Least of all the data collectors themselves.
Having the terms and conditions or privacy policy on the page is not actually good enough if people don't even know they need to read a full page of legal stuff before they do ANYTHING on every single website they visit. It is usually hidden at the bottom of the page where no one ever looks, or I have had to click on 'help' and 'about us' sections to look for the privacy policy. If you are not interested in 'about them' or needing any help you'll never know a privacy policy is there.
Furthermore, people clicking onto a page then clicking on the link to their privacy policy / T&Cs have already had a lot of their information collected before they have the chance to consent or even be informed of what was being collected, and choose to opt out (close the page)
They should make the terms and conditions / privacy page a gateway to get into websites with a button saying you want to go ahead (or not).
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Sunday 6th July 2008 01:04 GMT tnetech
Privacy Statement?
Anyone who thinks that there is privacy on the internet is kidding themselves. Servers keep logs, that what they do. They serve content and keep logs. Everything is logged, everything.
One day shortly a judge will turn over the logs of some file sharing site/bit torrent site and the copyright owners will start chasing their royalties.
Viacom just got the Youtube logs, this is only the start i think.
Whether its Google, Yahoo, Microsoft or your local ISP they will eventually have to produce their logs. There is too much money involved for the free-for-all that the internet had became to continue!
http://tnetech.net
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Monday 7th July 2008 09:19 GMT Andy
Bye bye google
Having read this article and also the comments posted by people on www.iii.co.uk concerning phorm (yes, it's still going on but the share price is below a tenner right now, roll on the death of phorm!) I have deleted my youtube account (might not make any difference but I won't be on there any more, not that I went there much anyway) and my googlemail account will be going very soon.
As for privacy on the internet, there is less and less of it. Perhaps this is the beginning of the slow decline in internet usage. Maybe all this privacy stuff will get more and more people thinking about what they actually do when they are on the net. Then again maybe not.
Paris 'cos she ain't got any privacy.
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Monday 7th July 2008 09:19 GMT Anonymous Coward
The Failure of the Algorithm.
It looks like the genius coders at Google haven't learnt how to use localisation tools effectively -- lots languages (eg Tongan, Gaelic, Basque and Bork bork bork!) are still coming up with "Google". Seems like they haven't properly modularised their code.
Or maybe they're just too lazy (stupid?) to use a dictionary and Find Out For Themselves!
Honestly, one of the world's richest companies and they expect their users to do everything for them....
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Monday 7th July 2008 13:30 GMT Gavin Pearce
Google removing Google from Google
Google have removed the word Google from their copyright, to keep the word count at 2008.
I have no idea here, but I thought in some countries, you had to have the company name in the Copyright disclaimer for the Copyright to count. (Don't mean UK/US/EU etc, but just some countries?)
Not sure though.
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Biting the hand that feeds IT
