The world's most powerful electronic surveillance organizations will join forces. NSA gets additional data on the cyber-attack against Google, to further strengthen its own information assurance activities, in exchange for sharing some of their lessons learned with Google. I can't fault that; there is positive benefit to both sides (though the pact is probably better for Google than for NSA).
It seems like a small thing to get so many words in the WaPo, though (two pages on). I get the impression it's ringing privacy nuts' bells all over the country.
I, of course, am one of them-there privacy nuts, and I've been tooting one particular horn for ages: there is no free lunch, so what pays for all those free and nifty Google services you use?
- Google has deeper access to information about you (more than digital trails of say, what you buy with your credit card: Google knows things like who you talk to, how often, and exactly about what; it knows where you live and where you go; it knows which stocks you own; it knows what kinds of porn you like.).
- Google is both allowed to and wants to collect directly on every US person who lives.
- Its motive is profit.
- It is right now building up a profile on you that includes every aspect about every facet of your life (so it can serve you appropriate ads) -- it doesn't have to show cause in order to collect on you.
- Most devastating, Google's isn't a purely passive collection system. You actively feed Google information about the most important aspects of your life -- and you actually have a choice.
Google: paid by our information, to spy more thoroughly.
This is scary shit (says the woman with the Blogger account).
The Onion takes Google on, in some of the best work from them I've seen in recent years:
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Acknowledging that Google hasn't always been open about how it mines the roughly 800 terabytes of personal data it has gathered since 1998, Schmidt apologized to users— particularly the 1,237,948 who take daily medication to combat anxiety—for causing any unnecessary distress, and he expressed regret—especially to Patricia Fort, a single mother taking care of Jordan, Sam, and Rebecca, ages 3, 7, and 9—for not doing more to ensure that private information remains private.
"I'd like nothing more than to apologize in person to everyone we've let down, but as you can see, many of our users are rarely home at this hour," said Google cofounder and president Sergey Brin, pointing to several Google Map street-view shots of empty bedroom and living room windows on a projection screen behind him. "And, if last night's searches are any indication, Boston's Robert Hornick is probably out shopping right now for the spaghetti and clam sauce he'll be cooking tonight."
"Either that, or hunting down that blond coworker of his, Samantha, whose Picasa photos he stares at every night," Brin added.
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http://www.theonion.com/content/news/google_responds_to_privacy