News Google hit by privacy suit from UK Safari users

i dont really mean that, i mean, just becos im an "honest web user", for lack of a better term, does not mean that anyone can step over my privacy. i dont have anything to hide, but it is my choice to divulge any info about myself to anyone. and google is using my info to SELL to others i dont want to be apart of. ergo, the point is not to be honest or not, but to try and maintain my freedom and privacy as i see fit for myself.

damn.. this **** just got deep.

 

I agree, I don't think just anyONE should be able to step over anybody's privacy. But like I said, I doubt Google has legal rights to have individual employees single you out and spy on your activity. I think the whole problem with this tracking thing is the portrayal of it. People automatically assume ANY form of tracking to be a breach of personal security, even if it's just a machine looking at it for YOUR benefit. Assuming google's employees aren't giggling over the things you search, I really don't see the problem. If a website has ads that are unavoidable, the whole point of this tracking feature was to give advertisements relevant to you. I would much rather go to a website and see ads related to computers than a stupid show on MTV, if that means Google keeps track of my searches.

I think if Google encrypts your search info then most people ought to complain a lot less. Remember back in the day when everyone was paranoid about their number being stolen online? I wouldn't say this situation is a whole lot different.

 

Exactly, and with some medical records online and more going online, credit records online and many people using cloud storage for personal data who knows just what info google/doubleclick and their like can accumulate about people, it's the same old story when they say the data is of no interest or value to them, then why do they openly or covertly try to harvest it, were all stupid right

 

Or, you could just install an ad-blocker, and if you want extra anti-tracking you can use Adblock plus' tracking protection filter.

 

If you want to advertise on the web its extremely difficult to not use a google own subsidery as they have brought out or own basically 90% of them.

Adblocker is great if you want to block adds.

Think what Gareth is trying to say is if you want to advertise its difficult with no google.

Google has so much invested in advertisement ( basically the entire company) that if everyone was blocking them they would struggle. Add revenue went mobile hence the creation of andriod. Get paid more for mobile clicks than you do desktop now.

Can't say I've personally clicked on an add I use addblocker on pc.

 

so who gets all the money from the lawsuit?

 

Not sure about the fine itself, 2 years of data on a fairly small subset of Safari users (who are themselves a small subset of internet users) can't be worth that much to Google - so deliberately tracking them looks stupid, particularly given the rep damage, and yet I still can't believe they could pick that up for so long without someone realising!

Personally not that fussed about being tracked online, so I wouldn't set the 'Do Not Track' flag - but I'd be pretty furious if this'd happened to me. I won't be losing sleep though, and I doubt Google will either.

 

Google doesn't sell your information. Advertisers contact google saying "show this advert to these kinds of people" then google do it. Nobody ever sees your info anyway, it just gets aggregated into statistics that the ad server uses to choose what you're most likely interested in.

This.

If you read the rest of the article it sounds like a lack of communication between different teams at google/doubleclick. The doubleclick people that implemented the workaround could easily have no idea that the google OPT_OUT cookie wasn't working. I'm sure google just settled because $22m is nothing to them and it saves a tedious court case.

 

Surprised those ****ing **** faced arse bandit **** face assholes at Apple didnt ask for 9999999 trillion dollars. Bunch of ****s, **** Apple.

 

Not hugely surprising. There's no real incentive to make sure they aren't tracking those who opt out until it comes back to bite them like this.

It's always wise to be wary around someone trying to profit off you. Google's no different in this case, no matter how nice their motto is meant to be.

Did you read the article? Or even just the title? "Google hit by privacy suit from UK Safari users".

 

Yup, and I think I made my feelings abundantly clear about the issue.

 

so how is that not selling my info that they have to others? they pay google for google to use my info they have to help them advertise. as well as showing me products i dont want to be apart of. my unwillingness to be apart of this still stands. i dont care who has my info, secret or not. its my info and thats where it should stay till i decide to tell anyone where i went or what i did.

 

I'm not sorry about this opinion, and I know it'll be viewed as harsh or absurd, but.

People who bring lawsuits like this for their personal gain over something that has not affected them in the slightest, should just be banned from getting involved in legal spats, and banned from using current technology.

If they've done anything at all it's prove that they can't handle the responsibility of using technology, and demonstrate that they even begin to smell money and they'll lie through their teeth for it.

Grifter, if you're that paranoid about your "info" then stop using the ****ing web. It's that simple.

 

Ok, seems probable that Google has messed up in this case. But surely, in general, it should our browsers that protect us by refusing permission for crap to be placed on our systems that we do not want, or any form of tracking, or focused advertising.

I do not want any of it. I don't want advertising to be focused for me. I do not want to be tracked. I do not want a trail of data stored about me.

So, which browser protects me guys? I'm really struggling to settle on a browser that protects me as I want to be protected.

I support the people laying claims. Not in court. But if it helps to get a MASSIVE corporation to wake up and play ball as it should be, I say go for it, take them for hundreds of millions of whatever currency. I want my friggin privacy back.

 

ok troll

 

Do you not find it mildly amusing that you're whinging about internet privacy, and yet, you've got an account here - Which means an email account, which suggests that you're using other online services, which equally suggests that you're creating your own data trail?

...You, as above, have accounts here, probably elsewhere too, and are whinging about internet privacy, but somehow I'm the troll? Seriously?

If you want internet privacy, try the following: Clear your accounts off forums, facebook, et al (Not forgetting that pesky email) set your browser to clear the cache, history, and personal data on close, install an adblocker of your choice, something akin to noscript, and run through a proxy. Perhaps, if you want to go to extremes, have a VM that you run all that through and then restore to a snapshot of the base install & appropriate addons so you can truly toast anything tracking your activity.

If you're doing none, or only part of the above, then you have no right whatsoever to moan about a tracking cookie.

 

Because you said you were worried about the privacy of it. Your private information is never seen by anyone or sold to anyone. That's why it's not "selling your info". They are profiting from your information, yes, but not selling it to anyone.

 

Bingo.

Which is why this is a nonsense. It wasn't all that long ago that browsers didn't HAVE an option to not allow tracking, and we were all fine with it then.

Let's be honest, as liratheal quite correctly points out, everything you do on the internet - every account you hold, everything you buy - you're leaving a trail behind which somebody can use to piece together enough information about you to potentially do harm. A nevermind whining about a f**king tracking cookie when your ISP keeps records of your internet activity for the damn government to look at whenever they choose!

And on a lighter note...I enjoy many Google services. Google Maps, Gmail, Google Drive and so on. These were built on the back of advertising revenue. I hardly think it's the end of the world for Google to know which sites I visit in order to show ads to me that are more relevant to me (which I *CAN* block with an adblocker anyway).

And besides...

Safari users deserve everything they get

 

No we weren't all fine with it then.