It's just a matter of time until all companies that sit on a ton of data start using it to make money. There is just no way around it unless they are being forced by law not to do it.
it's not just a matter of time. As stated in the article, Google actually reverted its policy on the issue and has since stopped collecting data from user email content.
There's nothing inevitable about this. Even apart from law employees can steer the direction of companies, especially in tech where businesses are so dependent on a relatively small number of them. If you think privacy practises at your place of work are bad, bring it up.
Are you suggesting that Google took a stand on principle and voluntarily gave up gathering more data on users of its free services out of respect for privacy?
Or is it perhaps more likely that Google gets enough info from users via others means that it simply wasn't getting enough value out of email scanning? Or maybe starting a trend against email scanning hurts competitors more than it hurts themselves?
It is probably all of those things at the same time, and nothing stops employees from wielding considerable power when it comes to influencing decision making on any of those issues.
Google was, only a few months ago, forced by its employees to turn down lucrative defence contracts, and has since committed to not participate in them.
I think if employees manage to accomplish that we can all manage to improve our privacy practises.
I tend to agree, fwiw. Scanning emails prevented Google from taking a stand on privacy without subjecting itself to easy potshots of hypocrisy, regardless of how many times they explained the methodology and use of keywords instead of profile building.
See this announcement[0]. While I can't say for sure, it's reasonable to conclude that email monetization was confusing business clients. (I work for Google).
Who said they were gathering less data? Do you understand how an email mailbox works? Those emails are still there, just like they are with any other email service.
The issue is people not understanding the difference between data collection and data use for one or more purposes. This sloppy thinking (which to my mind is so obviously wrong that I can't understand how anyone would think it) shows up repeatedly on this forum, and you're just the latest example. My apologies.
Once the data is collected, it can be used at some later date for any purpose whatsoever. It's up to the user to decide if they like the purposes it is being used for today and if they either think the data will be used for purposes they like in the future or will be able to migrate their data off the service.
Once the data is collected, it can be used at some later date for any purpose whatsoever.
INAL, but I'm fairly confident you cannot unless you want to get lawsuit. Granted, the terms that practically nobody looks at give companies pretty far reaching grants on how they can use the data but that does not mean they can change the terms on old data that was collected under a previous contract.
I work with personally identifiable information and I have to get approval from a privacy team and a lawyer team to utilize data in any new way because of said contracts.
Comments
It's just a matter of time until all companies that sit on a ton of data start using it to make money. There is just no way around it unless they are being forced by law not to do it.
it's not just a matter of time. As stated in the article, Google actually reverted its policy on the issue and has since stopped collecting data from user email content.
There's nothing inevitable about this. Even apart from law employees can steer the direction of companies, especially in tech where businesses are so dependent on a relatively small number of them. If you think privacy practises at your place of work are bad, bring it up.
Are you suggesting that Google took a stand on principle and voluntarily gave up gathering more data on users of its free services out of respect for privacy?
Or is it perhaps more likely that Google gets enough info from users via others means that it simply wasn't getting enough value out of email scanning? Or maybe starting a trend against email scanning hurts competitors more than it hurts themselves?
It is probably all of those things at the same time, and nothing stops employees from wielding considerable power when it comes to influencing decision making on any of those issues.
Google was, only a few months ago, forced by its employees to turn down lucrative defence contracts, and has since committed to not participate in them.
I think if employees manage to accomplish that we can all manage to improve our privacy practises.
I tend to agree, fwiw. Scanning emails prevented Google from taking a stand on privacy without subjecting itself to easy potshots of hypocrisy, regardless of how many times they explained the methodology and use of keywords instead of profile building.
See this announcement[0]. While I can't say for sure, it's reasonable to conclude that email monetization was confusing business clients. (I work for Google).
[0]: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2017/jun/26/google-wi...
I think you are right on. And nothing prevents them from using E-mails in the future again if it makes money.
GP clearly said monetizing, parent clearly disagreed with the monetizing part, and you clearly changed the subject to gathering. That's disingenuous.
Who said they were gathering less data? Do you understand how an email mailbox works? Those emails are still there, just like they are with any other email service.
The parent comment that I replied to:
So the 'who' would be the parent commenter.
That type of comment feels so out of place here. I've clearly deeply annoyed you, but it's hard to tell from your reply what exactly your issue is.
The issue is people not understanding the difference between data collection and data use for one or more purposes. This sloppy thinking (which to my mind is so obviously wrong that I can't understand how anyone would think it) shows up repeatedly on this forum, and you're just the latest example. My apologies.
Once the data is collected, it can be used at some later date for any purpose whatsoever. It's up to the user to decide if they like the purposes it is being used for today and if they either think the data will be used for purposes they like in the future or will be able to migrate their data off the service.
INAL, but I'm fairly confident you cannot unless you want to get lawsuit. Granted, the terms that practically nobody looks at give companies pretty far reaching grants on how they can use the data but that does not mean they can change the terms on old data that was collected under a previous contract.
I work with personally identifiable information and I have to get approval from a privacy team and a lawyer team to utilize data in any new way because of said contracts.