Why are we not shocked anymore.
https://nypost.com/2020/02/11/london-police-officially-deploy-facial-recognition-cameras/
Here’s my take:
I vehemently oppose this. That one comment, “I’m not really concerned because I didn’t commit any crime or I’m not someone that is being wanted, I’m fine. Safety comes first,” is especially moronic.
So not a very good past weekend for internet privacy:
Eric Schmidt of Alphabet/Google fame says that he thinks in 10-15 years there will be two ‘internets’, the U.S. leading one and China the other. And there’s NO WAY China’s version will be as free from censorship as most of the rest of the world’s is.
China shuts down more than 4,000 websites and online accounts in a three-month campaign against “harmful” online information. Sounds like most of it was smutty sites, but also religious ones and those ‘spreading rumors’.
And Google also makes the news, yet again, over privacy concerns.
Wow, this on top of the Dragonfly debacle. So now with the latest release of Chrome will start making you log in with your Google account when you use the browser. Though they say your browser data stays local, there’s no guarantee it’s even true, or maybe true now but for how long. I agree with these two security guys assessment, this is a retarded change for Google to make and there are no good arguments for it.
The past few days I’ve been thinking a lot more about my continuing use of Google, which is not quite as radical as what I wrote about in my last post about what it would take to leave Google totally. I know I’m no one of ‘interest’ to them, and my data is really just a drop in their digital data ocean… but how much do I want Google to know about me, really? How much of my daily life do I want them to track? And it’s not just them, as a private company; I have NO doubts that they will (or do) bend over backwards when the NSA/CIA/FBI/etc knocks on their door requesting specific user information but that’s a whole ‘nother matter (trying to keep Big Brother out of anything on the internet is a fool’s errand). And just so this is written out here, I’m not trying to hide anything nefarious… I just believe that no one entity should have all data about everything one does. Here’s an example: Do I care that pictures of my house or my car (ala Maps street view, Zillow, etc) or my family (ala FB, my own website, etc) are available on the internet? No. Would I care if there were pictures on the internet of me in the shower, or telephotos of my family taken at night through the windows our living room? Absolutely. See, there really IS a thing about needing privacy and secrecy. Not ALL things should be recorded. I am of the feeling that Google (now that they are aren’t trying to not be evil hyuck) deep down believes in the tagline from that failure of a movie, The Circle: “Knowing is good. Knowing everything is better.” Oh, sorry, that’s supposed to be Facebook.
Years ago, as Google was burgeoning and starting their empire-building (like taking over Youtube, trotting out Google+, Google Voice, Google Drive, yada yada), I did not want to put all my eggs in one basket. I decided back then to use multiple Google accounts for the various Google services just for the sake of privacy, to make sure (at least as well as I could!) that the G would not have a complete profile of me (I can’t even imagine how much Google knows about any individual who uses a single Google account login for everything!). But I do have a certain main personal account that I’ve used for several services over the years (Gmail, Photos, Voice, Keep, Android phone, etc, not to mention using that specific gmail for other internet services like my Amazon account and FB and others) and this is the one I’m mainly thinking all this about right now, as my Google profile… what they would consider as me. And that has me considering what it would take to switch from that account to a new Google Shadow Profile… a new blank-slate account that would begin to hold my data, but would not be associated to my personal self. If it’s a shadow account, it could even be possibly used for multiple G services too, those that didn’t contain personally identifiable information.
But ugh, is this even possible?? Is there a way to ‘turn off the siphon’ of data that flows into and out of an old and well-used Google account? A way to create a kind of shadow persona, of sorts, out of thin air to take on the roll of my unself. To a rather pessimistic and depressing point, though, at this point in the game is it even worth it to try to do this? Once someone is ‘known’ in the Google pool, can that even be reversed?
Lots to think about. Guess a good place to start is to first try making a list for where ALL the data points are being sourced and recorded. Then to try to come up with alternatives that stop filling my real-name data bucket and start forming the new shadow self.
2018.09.27 Update: Timely article by Lifehacker, Ditch Gmail With These Alternatives. Reading a few comments, I’m definitely not alone in wanting to move off of Google/Gmail but also feeling the angst of having those accounts around for so many years now.
Man, this is one thing I’d not thought to consider before… but here we are mid-2018 and now it’s a thing. I’ve been a fan of Google since the beginning. I have multiple Gmail accounts set up for lots of different services. I host our family’s blog on Blogspot. And for almost a year now I’ve been using a Samsung Galaxy S8+ phone (and still loving it, even after the Apple iPhone event this week, no jealousies here!). But there’s been stirrings in the past few months or so about Google working on a search engine specifically tailored for China, code name Dragonfly. Even though they’ve not publicly commented AT ALL* yet (Pichai mentioned in a meeting that it’s in the “exploratory” stage), there’s pretty strong evidence that it’s moving forward… they’ve had over a thousand employees sign a letter against it and even had several leave the company in recent days. What is so concerning is that it appears (again, from hearsay) Google is making this fully compliant with China’s censorship rules. This is also a 180 degree change from Google’s stance for pulling out of China back in 2010… because of Chinese gov’t hacking and crackdown on free speech. Talk about irony.
The Intercept released information today that Dragonfly in China will link a person’s cell number with the searches they make, thus making it very easy for government officials to track users. Dragonfly would not only use the China-controlled search term black list, it also seems “to have been tailored to replace weather and air pollution data with information provided directly by an unnamed source in Beijing.” The more we hear about Dragonfly (and the louder the silence coming from Google), it looks very much like Google is truly capitulating on their “Don’t be evil” motto… all because they smell so much money there in China.
So, my quandary. IF Dragonfly is a true project that Google is fully intent on pursuing, and they make some official word about it, I’m in a dilemma between fully taking myself off Google’s customer list and killing my use of their services (is that even possible?!) OR be complicit myself in supporting their actions towards China by continuing to use them wholeheartedly. I really really hope Google does the right thing and sticks to their moral guns (yeah I know that’s a stretch but come on you know what I mean) and declares very soon that Dragonfly is just something like a research project that they refuse to implement, and then kill these rumors.
It’s not looking good right now. I’m pessimistically of the opinion that I should start making plans…
Update 9/21: Yeah, so much for transparency… Google bosses have forced employees to delete a confidential memo circulating inside the company that revealed explosive details about a plan to launch a censored search engine in China… Also interesting to learn how militant the big G has become recently with their internal security and investigative teams.
Update 9/21: Also, THIS straight from Pichai’s memo on biasing search results (in response to Trump’s recent remarks), just how does this ethically jive with work on Dragonfly? Italics are mine: “We feel privileged to be building a product that provides instant access to information for everyone, everywhere—whether you’re a PhD from MIT, or a student on the other side of the world using a computer for the first time.”. . . “It’s important to me that our internal culture continues to reinforce our mission to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful.”
Update 10/9: I hope Google gets smacked down really hard now, this is ridiculous: Leaked Transcript of Private Meeting Contradicts Google’s Official Story on China. To quote: “Ben Gomes Addresses Google Staff Working on Dragonfly, July 18, 2018”. What a bunch of liars. Can’t wait to see how this works out.