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by pasbesoin 5885 days ago
Yes, and this is the same sort of problem many people had with Buzz. Your contact list was private, and then -- wham! -- there it is (or parts of it) for the world to see. (And your profile à la Buzz started aggregating Google-related activity; even if aspects of it were not previously designated "private", hanging it all off of your profile sure made it more accessible.)

If you knew at the start that that would happen, it might have stopped you from giving them -- originally and mostly through Gmail -- your contacts list. (Or using other affected services.) But when you signed up, they were all about "privacy" -- particularly after their previous efforts to reassure people in the face of concerns over automated ad targeting in Gmail. (Which was its own event, but I guess people generally decided that, as long as its purely automated and doesn't affect anything more than ad presentation, they could live with it.)

Hmm... as a thought exercise, what if your Gmail content starts affecting not just ad presentation but your search results. Would you have a bit more concern, then?

What if your employer starts examining employees' "customized" search results (perhaps by hiring a third party that specialized in this) and making inferences?

I assume they can and some may well already log and analyze the ads returned on those searches. Now that ads are starting to "follow people" across searches and sessions -- at least at some sites -- what personal habits might you inadvertently be bringing with you to work, via third parties' tracking of and response to your web use?
1 comments
anigbrowl 5884 days ago
Exactly. That might merely seem embarrassing, and one could say 'use incognito browsing' for obviously personal stuff. But what if you're interested in politics and your employer strongly supports a different party? Or you have health worries of your own or for your kids, and an employer doesn't want to see health premiums rise? Such concerns seem abstract until they begin affecting people's livelihoods, by which time it can be hard to undo the ill effects.
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