Earth shaking news

[altivo]

Or not. Today was all a-dither here in northern Illinois about the horrible, scary earthquake that hit just before 4 am this morning. I listened silently to several accounts of how frightening it was, and read several more online. All I can think is that this reaction must have been occasioned by bad dreams about the Haiti quake of last month,

Comments

[altivo]

In essence, they are behaving like Facebook. I guess many people think this is OK, but I'm not so sure about it. Facebook constantly gnaws at users to add "suggested" individuals based on who knows what algorithms. Often they are people you have never heard of and have no idea who they are. They do provide an option to ask why the person is being recommended, but the answer is often obtuse. I often see them explained as "friend of" someone else I do not know, or as having "three friends in common" or something like that.

I did not permit them to push to all of my Gmail contact list, but they "automatically" set me up to follow my "most frequently contacted" (however that is determined, it's a secret apparently) which added up to about 16 people. They did the same to other people who "frequently contact" me, so I already had followers as soon as I entered the application. The damage is done so I'm letting it run for a few days, but I expect it will quickly develop into something as spammy and useless as Facebook is.

I also expect Twitter-style spammers and spambots to appear before long. They just have to find some different algorithm of attack, but I'm sure the means are there.

The "opt out" after you're in the system is apparently hidden in very tiny print at the bottom of the "Edit Profile" page.

[hrrunka]

Google Buzz takes it one step further by automatically adding a selection of your contacts to "people you follow" and then making this list public if you have a public Google profile...

...at least, according to this story and reports I had from another friend who found he'd inadvertently revealed a friend's full real name...

[altivo]

Thanks for the link. I followed up on the sources mentioned and found a list of privacy issues much longer than I expected and all of them are real.

I don't have to completely disable the thing just yet, because I severely pruned my contact list immediately and have since hidden it. But there are other issues. Twitter doesn't allow people to follow you without your knowledge, and does allow you to block them if they seem at all suspicious or aren't revealing enough about their identity to satisfy you. I block new followers constantly there because I have no idea who they are or why they should be following me. Buzz allows them to follow you anonymously if they hide or erase their Google profile. Worse, if you can't get to their profile you can't block them. Now that is severely unacceptable. Stalking anyone? Bosses snooping on employees?