News - Facebook caught trying to smear Google on privacy

[crossy]

Googles moto is "Do not evil", however due to its size it can't help it at times.

Yep, I remember a line in a news article where someone was of the opinion that "when you're an elephant you can't always avoid stepping on ants" when referring to Google's occasional faux-pas. They may aim to "Do no evil" but sometimes that's unavoidable.

However Facebook seems to have been born sold out, would do anything for a buck and is getting more evil by the minute. Minor example... create new privacy options, set them all to be "open" by default.

+1 on this. It's interesting (to me at least) to see that FB-presence seems to becoming a must-have for a lot of businesses. Most of the ones I've done biz with this week online have had that "Follow us on Facebook(tm)" link somewhere.

From what I can see it's also an age-related thing, the older you are the more irrelevant FB is (website version of that place in Logan's Run?). Certainly my teenage kid (and her pals) all regard it as a must-have. Me, on the other hand, doesn't think I'm missing anything by being FB-free.

Ask yourself, "if these two companies had to disappear tomorrow, which would you miss most?" and I'm pretty sure that in the majority of folks are going to say "Google".

Didn't Apple and/or Microsoft already try a smear campaign? In which case, how did that turn out?

[TooNice]

There is another reason I like FB over emails: you can remove people you add. I am sometime weary that someone decent I've just met may not be very net savvy (isn't this a word? it's underlined in the spell check :/), and decide to do plug my email where I'd rather s/he did not. Sure I've had the odd spam from people who just couldn't resist clicking on the "Find out who checked your profile" link (paraphrasing), but they can be easily deleted. And if I find that I really can't stand someone, I have the option of unfriending+blocking them.. or at the very least putting them on restricted view while we sort out our differences (it's rare, but it's not a bad option to have).

[Gkpm]

Fair enough that people call foul on FB's tactics (however such practices are the "industry standard", Google also employs several PR companies which probably do the same)

However to me the real matter in this topic is the subject itself, Google's Social Circles.
I'm very surprised almost everywhere this "smear" was reported failed to include a link for us to check our Social Circle, to let us determine for ourselves which is worse, the smear or the actual claim.

So if you haven't yet please have a look at:

http://www.google.com/s2/search/social

And see for yourselves what Google publicly keeps on your connections (maybe they even keep more, who knows)

Btw, as far as I can tell there's no opt out other than to remove your contacts.

[Splash]

Clicked the link - "This service is not available". Profiles is not available for my Google Apps domain.

[Biscuit]

there was very little therte for me, just the contacts from my g-mail account o_O dont see the big deal

[watercooled]

Same, but it only shows Gmail addresses, and it seems to be only the ones I've recently been in chat with. Can't say I expected that - Google knowing what contacts I have saved on that account in my Gmail address book! :O

[miniyazz]

I don't really see what the big deal is either - so Google has a list of a few people in my address book? I have email with Google, I expect them to. Plus, 11 of the 18 it mentions I can't even remember who they are, they're that insignificant (and I should probably delete them from my address list) and another one is me with a different user account. The 'secondary connections' appear to be general BS.

Is there a reason I should be concerned about this? If so, I'm all ears. But I find it hard to get excited on discovering that the company who provides me with email knows who's in my address book.

[TooNice]

This is old news I am sure, but I don't log into YouTube often. And I just found out that I -have- to link my YouTube account to a Google account. Pain in the bum, because I'd much rather keep things separate. Consider this my first moan at Google, and I am going to think carefully whether I really want to do this.

[jim]

This is old news I am sure, but I don't log into YouTube often. And I just found out that I -have- to link my YouTube account to a Google account. Pain in the bum, because I'd much rather keep things separate. Consider this my first moan at Google, and I am going to think carefully whether I really want to do this.

Right, but there's nothing stopping you having multiple gmail accounts - why not just create a new ID for junk stuff like Youtube?

I know it's not exactly the best solution, but it's probably better than connecting it to an account when you'd rather not

[TooNice]

Indeed, I was thinking of doing that, but the whole 'permanence' of it (the process used to be, but no longer is reversible) makes me wonder which account I should link my 'primary' YT account (the one where I upload the odd video). It's not important enough to merge with the email I signed up with (I don't want them to share the same login/password), but it's not unimportant enough for me to associate with my 'public PC' account and share the login of that either.