Google Scolded By Privacy Officials.

[JMH]

Buzz, the company's social networking arm for Gmail, continues to elicit criticism.

Data protection officials from ten countries on Tuesday chastised Google CEO Eric Schmidt in an open letter for his company's handling of the launch of Google Buzz and asked the company to commit to building greater privacy protections into its future services.

The letter was sent by Jennifer Stoddart, privacy commissioner of Canada, and signed by her counterparts in France, Germany, Israel, Italy, Ireland, Netherlands, New Zealand, Spain and the United Kingdom.

"[W]e are increasingly concerned that, too often, the privacy rights of the world's citizens are being forgotten as Google rolls out new technological applications," the letter states. "We were disturbed by your recent rollout of the Google Buzz social networking application, which betrayed a disappointing disregard for fundamental privacy norms and laws."

The letter also notes that Google has a history of privacy problems with its services, particularly Google Maps Street View, which has hit roadblocks -- both literally and figuratively -- as it has been deployed around the world.

Source -
http://www.darkreading.com/insidert...Article.jhtml?articleID=224500044&cid=RSSfeed

 

[Tews]

Google... All your information are belong to us...

 

[thefabe]

It's amzing how much information on a person is so readily avalible as it is. I searched once on a site with my name and found 2 old girlfriends using my last name and my address??? It's kinda getting scary to me. Thanks for posting this. Fabe

 

[ahriman]

I stay away from Google, and its services, as much as I can.
No Chrome, no Gmail, etc. Very occasionally I use Google search.

 

[CarlTR6]

I stay away from Google, and its services, as much as I can.
No Chrome, no Gmail, etc. Very occasionally I use Google search.

Ditto. I avoid Google.

 

[whs]

I stay away from Google, and its services, as much as I can.
No Chrome, no Gmail, etc. Very occasionally I use Google search.

Ditto. I avoid Google.

Me too. Google is too invasive.

 

[seekermeister]

If someone could refer me to a webmail service that is equal to GMail, I would get rid of my account there, but I don't think that such a thing exists.

As for Google, I would be the last to argue for preferring it, but it does have some handy features, like being able to select the cache, rather than a live link. I often use Scroogle instead, because it cleans Google up some, but even though I have it listed in search engines and on my Speeddial, I too often forget. Old habits are hard to break.

 

[smarteyeball]

I stay away from Google, and its services, as much as I can.
No Chrome, no Gmail, etc. Very occasionally I use Google search.

Ditto. I avoid Google.

Me too. Google is too invasive.

Ditto.

My love for Google has long since soured and is in the current process of divorce.

Despite it's flaws - I've taken to using Bing as much as possible.

Plus I block *google-everybloodything.com* as much as humanly possible.

If someone could refer me to a webmail service that is equal to GMail, I would get rid of my account there, but I don't think that such a thing exists.

Windows Live Mail / hotmail. Not perfect either though

 

[seekermeister]

If someone could refer me to a webmail service that is equal to GMail, I would get rid of my account there, but I don't think that such a thing exists.

Windows Live Mail / hotmail. Not perfect either though

I don't know anything about WLM, but I did have a hotmail account once, years ago, and I got rid of it when I started getting spam shortly after opening the account, and I was more careful then than now, about where I let my email address be found. I felt that the source of the "leak" was hotmail itself.

 

[Mellon Head]

If someone could refer me to a webmail service that is equal to GMail, I would get rid of my account there, but I don't think that such a thing exists.

You can get rid of a Gmail account? I thought it was impossible, cuz I can't find a way to get rid of mine. It's like they think they own me, or something.

 

[CarlTR6]

If someone could refer me to a webmail service that is equal to GMail, I would get rid of my account there, but I don't think that such a thing exists.

You can get rid of a Gmail account? I thought it was impossible, cuz I can't find a way to get rid of mine. It's like they think they own me, or something.

And that is precisely why I won't go anywhere near GMail.

 

[MWRed]

I avoid the "G" word like the plague.
I have a gmail acct. but never really use it, and if I do, it's just for certain people I know who use it.

 

[whs]

I am very happy with AOL. It is not perfect, especially their browser which is very slow. But for mail it is ideal. I used it from day1 and can still retrieve my mail from day1. I don't have to worry about my mail backup and can access it from any coffee shop. Plus, there is zero spam. It is very easy to set up and migration from system to system is a piece of cake.

When I read all those threads where people have problems with their mail, I am certainly glad I chose AOL. In all these years we never had a single problem, neither my wife not myself. Btw: my wife does everything with AOL. She has never used another browser - but she is more patient than me. The upside is that she never caught a virus.

 

[severedsolo]

I am very happy with AOL. It is not perfect, especially their browser which is very slow. But for mail it is ideal. I used it from day1 and can still retrieve my mail from day1. I don't have to worry about my mail backup and can access it from any coffee shop. Plus, there is zero spam. It is very easy to set up and migration from system to system is a piece of cake.

When I read all those threads where people have problems with their mail, I am certainly glad I chose AOL. In all these years we never had a single problem, neither my wife not myself. Btw: my wife does everything with AOL. She has never used another browser - but she is more patient than me. The upside is that she never caught a virus.

god help you when/if you ever decide to get rid of it, it buries itself in everything

 

[whs]

god help you when/if you ever decide to get rid of it, it buries itself in everything

I don't know what that means. If you uninstall it, it's gone - very simple.

 

[CarlTR6]

Which is why it is not so affectionately called "AoHELL" I don't know if that still is the case; but it was certainly true a few years back. I have avoided AOL even more than I avoid Google. But in all fairness, that may not be the case now. AOL may have cleaned up their coding and their act. It did use to be very tenacious and difficult to get rid of. It made a lot of system changes that did not revert back when uninstalled.

 

[whs]

Carl, again, I don't know from where you get this. AOL is very non-invasive. It stays in it's little corner and does the job.

 

[CarlTR6]

I can't argue that it is not that way now; but years back it certainly was not the case. AOL virtually took over a machine. It has been 12-15 years since I had AOL on a machine. I am certainly open to the possibility, that AOL has cleaned up its act.