I bought the shiny new toy—the Motorola Android known as the Google phone. It is pretty cool and has lots of features, but it does have it’s kinks—getting more each day.

That said Moe, this post makes me regret the purchase.

What’s this Revenge of the Sith you’re talking about here? I’m not aware of the existence of any such film.

Great (sorta related) video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dv4j4bguYYk

the search engine or any of their other products. At least not that I am aware of, underneath things—who knows.
I did download and try their Chrome Browser for a day or two some time back.
When pop-ups noting that by using the program meant I gave license to Google to retain for their own purposes ‘stuff’ about my use of their product, I stopped and cleaned it off my machine.
Have changed machines since then, and the old one crashed so hard I couldn’t even do a minimal transfer of data, so even the minor risk of tag-a-long fragments of Chrome aren’t on my current toy.
As for what might or might not be on the Blackberry…..again, who knows what is in the background??

BTW: Does anyone know if using the “Private Browsing” function in IE or Firefox helps to reduce the amount of info that is available for these data vacuums to gather?

I live in Germany, where they are quite paranoid about anyone having any meaningful amount of information on you. I also know they are actively pushing google on the limits of what they are collecting, and how long they can hold it. I also know that as an American I was a little taken aback at how much information the government holds on you. The Europeans put a little too much trust in the government for my liking, but at least in Germany they have some damn restrictive privacy laws which seem to bar branches of the government from sharing that information about people. The courts here also seem to do a real good job of barring any intrusions on privacy….they seem to have had some period 70 years ago where public records and databases of the time (ledgers and census data) were misused….

I know a lot on this site are very wary of the civil liberties folks, and sometimes a bit too willing to carry water for the patriot act (which is an amalgam of political correctness and bureaucracy), but intrusion on privacy is something the government should definitely be restricting, and restricted from doing….and I don’t mean privacy is abortion…

Niel is right on this, and not limited to the net neutrality thing. Some form of civil liberties protection is the business of at least the judicial branch, and possibly to a smaller extent the legislative….

to China, or a Saudi prince or a UAE billionaire?

or do they have other ways (other than driving around taking pictures I mean)?

Proper grammar saves lives.

Let’s eat Grandma.
Let’s eat, Grandma.

---

Activists Taking Action: Unified Patriots

I believe Jonah Goldberg has made the point that supporting capitalism is not the same as supporting big business. Big business often works hand in hand with big government, and worse, they often influence big government to create regulations that inhibit growth of their smaller competition.

What is to keep Google from strategically leaking damning information on a congressional or senatorial candidate, or on a critic of their preferred candidate?

But the repeated calls of those who disagree with you as idiotic, ignorant, or agenda-driven pretty much make you come across as a paranoiac. Now, just because you’re paranoid doesn’t mean someone isn’t out to get you, but as a means of argumentation it’s pretty week.

…..even though it may elicit volumes of rationalizations as some of demonstrated here. The arguments proposed in your premise are DEAD ON ACCURATE and the opposition is completely in tuned to the same mantra/pitch/arguments for progressivism, as Aaron pointed out.

I will gladly sacrifice some digital capabilities in order to keep a handle on the combined calculated personal data bases that are purposefully, compiled in the manner in which Google and the WH are planning. Actually, a sacrifice probably wouldn’t even be needed.

Don’t stop these posts Neil. As a matter of fact, post one about this subject every other day or so. Thanks.

I still use Yahoo mail for all the stuff I have to give an email address for, but I’d love to have another email than Gmail. Any suggestions?

Anonymity & digital footprint management?

I saw an interview w/ Schmidt saying Google “anonymizes” data after 18mos, but critics replied that it can be easily reconstituted.

It’s a fact that Google stores an astronomical amount of data on virtually all of us. If you really want to, you can stay pretty much out of their databases – basically, but not using the Internet.

It’s also a fact that Redstate stores (on an astronomically smaller level) data which would be particularly attractive to a tyrannical leftist government – basically, an easy way to identify a whole lotta activist conservatives for some sort of punitive action.

Is that Redstate’s goal? Of course not – it’s just inherent to what Redstate is.

Is that Google’s goal? Who knows? But assuming it’s not for the sake of argument, assuming that their only goal is purely to make money and that they don’t care a hoot about the politics – they’d still be doing the exact same thing because such a massive database is, in fact, incredibly valuable for advertising.

If as a society we decided we didn’t like it, well, “There ought to be a law!” Except, isn’t that something as conservatives that we don’t like, namely, government meddling in the free market?

Besides, exactly what sort of law could be passed, and how would it be enforced? If you said, say, that personal data could only be stored for 30 days, not only would that cause all manner of complications and unforseen consequences, but to enforce it would require government minions LOOKING at everybody’s data. We’d probably wind up worse off than we were before.

You’re right that databases, by their very nature, are an invitation to abuse. So is a great deal of technology. I’ve read historical arguments in Victorian newspapers opposed to the coming of the railroads, because they allowed an easy means for criminals to quickly escape the local community where they committed their crimes. That’s a 100% true argument – but the railroads brought way more benefits than they did problems.

Google is not the problem. The databases are not the problem. A corrupt government which acknowledges no limits on their power – now, THAT’s the problem. If George Washington were President, this database would be a nonissue and no concern.

If we can get a government populated by honest men who respect America’s founding principles, this won’t be a problem. If we can’t… this still won’t be a problem, because the crooks and tyrants will do exactly as they please no matter what we or anyone else thinks.

I thought the piece was intended to point out the dangers of misuse of government databases. Maybe that was because I hadn’t seen the movie.

I have to admit I didn’t realize this piece was directed at Google until I started to read the comments. That lead me to go back, where I read “started looking closely at every single element of policy the firm promotes.” So then I got it.

I had missed that before because I happened to hear a discussion of the “perfect ID” idea between Bill O’Reilly and a guest. Their comments made me take notice–yes, an ID card incorporating DNA would be acceptable in America, even desirable.

But the kicker was their agreement that we lost all chance at privacy when the internet came in. They are probably right.

So, besides not using Google search, maps, and so on, what can I do to protect myself? The usual advice about privacy and security on my iMac has never made much sense to me. Using settings at the level that advice seems to point to ends up in a very difficult-to-use machine. Any suggestions about privacy and security settings, or other methods? What about cookies? Frequency of emptying the cache? Somebody mentioned “flashblock”? What is that?

That was when I knew that the Internet, your credit cards, ATM and anything that uses computers were tracking us. I think it was a guy named Johnson from Sun Systems who said this back in the nineties. When he did I felt a little naked, then realized there was nothing I could do except build a wood cabin on top of a hill somewhere. And even then Google map will have an overhead photo of my house.

The trouble starts when you find yourself being attacked with that information and that will be coming as Google and the government get closer and closer. Google wants to be the first in line when that moment comes. Like the big Pharma company said last year, “Either you are at the table or you are on the table.”

These are scary times.