In regards to data mining, I searched for a news article. I found “Google steps up user data mining across all of its services in ‘Big Brother’ move” by Marc Pinter-Krainer. Pinter-Grainer is the CEO and Founder of One News Page, an online news website kind of like Huffington Post, but perhaps less biased. This article highlights the new privacy policy that Google and its subsidiaries will be implementing. It also exposes the method at which Google mines for users’ data.
I have been noticing in the past year, that more and more ads on the pages I visit are reflecting searches I made about contacts, glasses, shoes, and hair product. I figured that it was all because of the history that I have kept on my web browser. So when I get tired of seeing those ads, I erase all history. Rarely do I ever click on those ads anyway because if I want to find something, I’ll Google it and click on the link when its on a list because I can see the link I’m going to. I don’t want to click on a banner that I don’t really know where I’ll be sent to.
Last quarter, a classmate of mine met with me to work on a group project. When she opened up her laptop, she exclaimed, “I don’t know how Nordstrom‘s knows what dress I was looking at two days ago! I keep getting all these things suggesting for me to buy it.” I figured she did not know about cookies and search history.
This topic about data mining is kind of interesting, but annoying at the same time. The fact that a company can figure out what I want to buy or look at is a little too Orwellian (1984). What kind of privacy do we have nowadays?
According to the article I read and the postings Google has made about their privacy policy, I’m kind of at a cross-roads. The article mentioned that Google is possibly adopting this new policy so that all their companies are on the same page. They could be doing that because they want to strategize their time and effort in making more money (to please Wall Street). I understand you need to make money, but at what cost? It costs users their privacy so it seems. I find it very peculiar that Google will even use Android phone users’ locations to recommend things to do.
That’s cool, but still creepy. That’s the very reason I don’t use location services on all my iphone apps. I think the only app I use it on is Google maps (hmm…) and Flixster’s Movies. I love you, Google. I just don’t know how I feel about data mining. Is this necessary for Web 2.0 to continue growing and eventually morph to Web 3.0?
I found Googles privacy policy to be quite interesting after giving it a second glance even though ive been a member of the site for years. I feel as though you are correct in assuming that most people just skim through user agreements and other large bodies of text they interpret as wastes of time but are often suckered into giving away their information without a second thought. I feel like the burden of issues with privacy sshould be placed completely on the consumer and that private companies have no liability to protect anyone information if people are so willing to give it away for free
Well the data mining and how much information companies can get on people can be rather frightening at time. But that doesn’t mean that data mining is all bad. There are some good uses for such collection services, like preventing fraud and helping target ads (which can get rather annoying, but can also be very useful). It would be nice if people could opt in to the service, but I don’t think that will be an option as it makes for a poor economic model – and no matter how nice companies are, they still want money.