Posts Tagged ‘Google’
Another Google privacy FAIL (grrr)
The Wall Street Journal reported that Google engineers had developed — and then rolled out — a ‘workaround’ to defeat MY privacy setting in Safari (oh yeah, I take it personally) where I had overtly intended to block third party cookies, viz: Here’s what WSJ’s Julia Angwin and Jennifer Valentino-DeVries reported: Google’s iPhone Tracking Web […]
Confronted with information indicating we are wrong, we get ‘cranky’
I listened to a brilliant lecture with Q&A on iTunes U last night by Eli Pariser, the author of The Filter Bubble. He was talking about the ideas in his book as part of a London School of Econmics Summer 2011 Public Lectures and Events. (Here’s the iTunes U URL [1 hr 20 min]. He’s […]
Privacy? Not if you use Gmail
From Read Write Web … Google Hands Wikileaks Volunteer’s Gmail Data to U.S. Government Gmail users got a hefty dose of reality today when it was revealed that Google handed over one user’s private data to the U.S. government, who requested it without a search warrant. The contacts list and IP address data of Jacob […]
Double standard?
Wow. Talk about a double standard. Some tech bloggers and others talk about Apple having ‘too much control’ over people’s iPhones and iPads and the ‘walled garden’ approach of the App Store. Look at these actions from Google (leave aside for the moment that Android’s marketplace offered more than FIFTY applications with privacy-busting malware embedded) : […]
In the cross-hairs: low quality, low value websites
A comment today on the Is this how Shaun Stenning handles a request for a refund? thread implies the dissatisfaction with his snipr ‘product’ is widespread: Re: SNIPRscam’ Hi, is anyone else in Melbourne/Australia interested in forcing a refund from Shaun Stenning for his Snipr scam? It seems that asking him nicely doesn’t work. I’ve […]
Worth reading
The Dirty Little Secrets of Search David Segal writing in the NYTimes reveals the games some businesses play with search engines. Reminds me of the ‘last-week-horse-racing-this-week-internet-marketing’ snake oil salesmen … note what happened to them when JC Penney got caught and ‘punished’ by Google’s spam cop. PENNEY reacted to this instant reversal of fortune by, […]
Google ‘street view’ moves INDOORS
Where next? Google has hired photographers to take panoramic pictures inside hundreds of shops and other businesses in Wellington and Auckland so their interiors can be viewed within Google Maps. The internet search giant is seeking permission before filming inside business’ premises. It said it might use the photos in unnamed future applications, but business […]
Beware the ubiquitous PDF? Really?
Oh no! First Flash, now PDF? Do we need to worry? My (profesional) life changed for the better with the widespread adoption of Adobe’s wonderful Acrobat PDF (portable document format). I use it every day — to communicate with others, to archive information or make it available for others … and to print and publish. […]
Shock! Horror! Scandal! Microsoft COPIES!
O hardy-har-har-har. Here’s a turn up for the books (NOT!)… via Danny Sullivan at Search Engine Land Google: Bing Is Cheating, Copying Our Search Results Here’s the slightly novel bit: Bing Admits Using Customer Search Data, Says Google Pulled ‘Spy-Novelesque Stunt’ The details of the sting, which Danny Sullivan lays out, are interesting. Google artificially […]
Feeling uncomfortable about Google, yet?
Oh, life was so much simpler for everyone when Google wasn’t sending its spies out into the world, ‘sniffing’ and STORING our private data, photographing our homes and scanning our books in public libraries without apparent regard for copyright. Now, to make it all better, they’ve appointed a ‘director of privacy’ (sigh) and say they […]
Google Is Now Officially Evil
Google Is Now Officially Evil — Business Insider Worth reading, and so is the lawsuit filing from Skyhook (PDF hosted at Daring Fireball) In short, Skyhook says that Google effectively forced Motorola to cancel a deal with Skyhook in which Skyhook would have provided location-based services in Motorola phones — because Google wanted Motorola to use Google’s […]
‘The problem with Google is that Eric Schmidt is creepy’
Not just for geeks: Here’s a really thoughtful post about Google, culture, and information privacy. From John Gruber. Well worth your time to read. And I like the way he’s unafraid to mention the FACT that people’s personality, ethics and character can lead their decision-making. Good on him. – P
Let’s head ’em off at the pass!
Even more on ad-blockers I was reading over at The Unofficial Apple Weblog, about a new extension for the Safari web browser which ‘cleans’ a lot of the extraneous material from around You Tube videos. Naturally, I’m not the only one annoyed by the ‘creativity’ You Tube’s owner/operators Google engage to interrupt my viewing pleasure. […]
