Privacy as a Competitive Advantage
July 9, 2010
Short honk: Facebook’s cavalier approach to privacy may have contributed to the firm’s summer doldrums in the 18-35 demographic. Google, adopting what reminds me of a proud ostrich,sees the world from its point of view. Duck Duck Go has taken a cue from these two companies and made privacy a competitive advantage. Point your browser at the Duck Duck go Privacy Policy. What I find interesting is that the company is probing a sensitive issue. Oracle has used a similar method with its “secure enterprise search” positioning. I think these two companies have a good idea. Perhaps Duck Duck Go will have more success with the approach than Oracle?
Stephen E Arnold, July 9, 2010
Freebie
Google May Tangle with a Red Bellied Black Snake
June 7, 2010
There are lots of dangerous creatures in Australia. Even the tiniest spider can kill you. Now Google may get a chance to become up close and personal with an Australian Red Bellied Black Snake. Point your browser to “Australia Orders Google ‘Privacy Breach’ Investigation.” The Australian authorities are not likely to kick back and relax over the issue of alleged Wi Fi intercepts. For me, the most interesting comment in the BBC write up was:
Attorney General Robert McClelland said there had been numerous complaints from the public and that police should investigate possible criminal breaches of the telecommunications privacy laws. Australian law prohibits people from accessing electronic communications for unauthorized purposes. Google has said it will co-operate with a police investigation.
Good idea, Google. A very, very good idea. My addled brain generated another observation, “The Math Club method of handling official inquiries from Australian authorities may play in Petaluma, but it may not work in Perth. Oh, here’s more about that Red Bellied Black snake. These creatures sometimes travel in pairs. That’s fun for the unwary.
Stephen E Arnold, June 7, 2010
A definite freebie
Google Spams the Goose
June 7, 2010
Short honk: I don’t write Google but Google writes me. Today I received a flock of messages enjoining me to use Picasa. No, thanks. I don’t do lots of pictures. I also am not interested in meeting new friends regardless of age, religion, race or sexual orientation. I am attracted to males who enjoy sitting quietly next to the goose pond coding and getting work done on time. This person whom Google wants me to know digitally does nothing for me:
If you are this person, please, let me know why Google thinks I need two sets of four pictures of you. Here in Harrod’s Creek, I thought I saw a person who looked a bit like you. You were in the local health club and I wondered if you were okay with my snapping your picture. It is not on Picasa, but here it is:
The Wall Street Journal was spamming me but Mr. Murdoch apparently grew weary of my publishing the conflicting prices he offered me to buy a second subscription. My real friends are not in Math Club. 🙂
Stephen E Arnold, June 7, 2010
Freebie. I like those tats, dude. Cool.
Google the Data Hoover
May 28, 2010
Today the goslings and I had a short chat about data privacy. Shortly after our discussion, I read “A Matter of Trust: 10 Places Google Collects User Data From”. Useful, but incomplete, round up of services from which Google allegedly captures user information. Worth a quick look.Then read “How Much Do You Trust Google?” Seems like a lot of people trust Google. Quite a differing view of the company. Which is accurate?
Stephen E Arnold, May 28, 2010
Freebie
Cutting Edge Privacy: Facebook and Google
May 17, 2010
What’s going on? The Europeans take umbrage at Google’s alleged collection of personal data whilst Wi-Fi sniffing. Read about the latest Math Club folly in “Google Data Admission Angers Europe.” Now flip to “Can You Quit Facebook?” These two outfits seem to be doing pretty much what they want and then scurrying in different directions to make their behavior somewhat PR-friendly.
In my opinion, the fact that both companies are acting in their own interests is standard operating procedure. The more interesting question is, “Which company is likely to emerge as the victor?”
I found “Ignore The Screams–Facebook’s Aggressive Approach Is Why It Will Soon Become The Most Popular Site In The World” edging toward Facebook’s side of the field. Here’s the passage I found thought provoking:
From a business perspective, in other words, Facebook’s approach to innovation is smart. It’s not always popular, but it works. And if Facebook wants to maintain its competitive edge, it will do what it has to do to smooth over the latest blow-up, and then go forth with the same approach and attitude it has had all along. Step back and think about what Facebook is doing here. It is pioneering an entirely new kind of service, one that most of its users have never seen before, one with no established practices or rules. It is innovating in an area–the fine line between public and private–that has always freaked people out. It is allowing people to communicate and share information in ways they never have before. It is making decisions that affect hundreds of millions of people. And it is trying to stay a step ahead of competitors that would like nothing better than to see it get scared and conservative and thus leave itself open to getting knocked off.
Google’s methods are, if the above analysis is accurate, old school. Facebook is new school. What happens when one old fashioned Soviet leader is replaced with an adjutant to a former Soviet leader? Old methods in a slightly updated package? I do not have an answer, but I think the Facebook frivolity requires close, close observation. It is new in a number of ways.
Stephen E Arnold, May 17, 2010
Freebie
YourOpenBook: Hurry
May 16, 2010
Short honk: A happy quack to the reader who alerted me to a Facebook centric “finding” service. If you have some Facebook skeletons in your closet, you may want to gobble a Rennie before navigating to YourOpenBook. I ran some interesting queries but the goose will not reproduce those results. Fascinating body of content and a basic search engine. Powerful and thought provoking. Know your child’s Facebook name? Azure chip consultant under 30? Coworker? Enjoy before the service suffers an unexpected outage. Note: queries are now returning different results with each refresh.
Stephen E Arnold, May 16, 2010
Freebie.
Google and the Problematic MACs
April 30, 2010
The article “Google Defends Street View Wi-Fi Data Collection” has a killer passage. This is the segment that made it into my handwritten notes:
Peter Fleischer, global privacy counsel for Google, countered this in a blog post, saying that the firm does not believe that collecting Wi-Fi network information is illegal. “This is all publicly broadcast information accessible to anyone with a Wi-Fi enabled device. Companies like Skyhook have been collecting this data for longer than Google, as well as organizations like the German Fraunhofer Institute,” he wrote.
The key words for me are “believe” and “anyone with a Wi-Fi enabled device.” But the context in which I snarfed down this sound bite was the flashback from Google’s stance on China. Navigate to “Baidu’s First-Quarter Profit Soared 165% on Google Exit.” The point of the story is that Google’s “belief” is costing its shareholders money and giving Baidu an implicit okay to sew up the world’s largest market. But even more remarkable is that Baidu has a deal with AliPay, which could strangle Google’s competing service in the world’s largest market.
Yep, believe and beliefs. Running a company is supposed to generate value for shareholders, not these public relations, legal, and financial dust storms. Will Google be able to hang on to the number one rank in top brands?
Stephen E Arnold, April 30, 2010
Unsponsored post.
Does Online Privacy Exist?
March 19, 2010
This week’s SSN Minute tackles the question, “Does online privacy exist?” David Thimme, contributor to the Strategic Social Network blog, takes a look at this issue. You can view the video from the SSN home page at http://ssnblog.com (just click on the SSN Minute logo) or click here to go directly to YouTube.com. The commentary references an SSN Blog post to help put the social media news in a business context.
Stephen E Arnold, March 18, 2010
This was a sponsored post.
A Modest Facebook Hack
September 13, 2009
For you lovers of Facebook, swing on over to Pjf.id.au and read “Dark Stalking on Facebook”. This is search with some jaw power. The key segment was in my opinion:
If a large number of my friends are attending an event, there’s a good chance I’ll find it interesting, and I’d like to know about it. FQL makes this sort of thing really easy; in fact, finding all your friends’ events is on their Sample FQL Queries page. Using the example provided by Facebook, I dropped the query into my sandbox, and looked at the results which came back. The results were disturbing. I didn’t just get back future events my friends were attending. I got everything they had been invited to: past and present, attending or not.
Links and some how to tips. Have fun before the former Googlers and Facebookers hop to it.
Stephen Arnold, September 13, 2009
Social Networks and Security
August 25, 2009
I got roasted at a conference last year when I pointed out that controlling security and privacy in social networks was a challenge. One 20 something told me that I was an addled goose. No push back from me. I stuck to my assertion and endured the smarmy remarks and head shaking. I thought of this young person when I read “Social Networks Leak Personal Information”. Sure, it is one write up in a trade magazine, but it contains a statement I find instructive:
The researchers say that social networks leak information through a combination of HTTP header information — the Referrer header and the Request-URI — and cookies sent to third-party aggregators such as Google (NSDQ: GOOG)’s DoubleClick, Google Analytics, and Omniture, among others. As a consequence of this leakage, third-party aggregators can potentially link social network identifiers to past and future Web site visits, thereby identifying a person and his or her online activities.
Right? Wrong? With the young-at-heart going social, old geese like me want to move forward with some caution.
Stephen Arnold, August 25, 2009
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