On Google on Privacy

I'd largely retired this blog some time ago but this is important enough that I felt that I should write about it in detail and this is as good a place as any to publish it. This article from the Register highlights the blatant disregard for user privacy that Eric Schmidt, the CEO of Google expressed recently. The exact quote:

If you have something that you don't want anyone to know, maybe you shouldn't be doing it in the first place."

In a sense he's right: secrets hurt and if you have something to hide, it would be a good idea to examine why one has something to hide in the first place. But that is beside the point when coming from one of the single largest information aggregators on the planet, one that collects and provides all kinds of information including a lot of information that many users don't realize they collect.

The thing that everyone who uses Google's services in any capacity needs to be aware of is this: Google tracks your every move. It's worst if you have a Google account (and you do, if you use any of the following: Gmail, Youtube, Google Reader, Google News, Blogger, Google Docs, and more) because they have a name to associate every detail of your activity with. but it's also a problem if you merely use Google's products anonymously. Google like every website records your IP address along with your activity which enough to find out who you are, and where you were at the time you visited Google. If you use Gmail, Google knows every mail you've sent or received through your account. If you use Youtube, Google knows every video you've posted, every video you've viewed and every comment you've made under your name or otherwise.

People have been bitten by the Internet privacy leak many time before, including Eric Schmidt, who blacklisted CNN's online news service CNET, for publishing unfriendly information about him that they got from Google.

The reason all this is important is because of Google's unique place in the industry. All corporation, no matter the size, whether they are web-based or not are capable of violating the privacy and trust of their clients (Facebook is another serious wildcard for example) but Google corporate motto is "don't be evil," and has earned for itself a place of respect and trust among web corporations by nearly always shining by comparison. For example has for the longest time been one of the most significant and vocal supporters and funders of open sourced software and as a result has contributed greatly to the technological advancement of the Internet, even in ways that do not directly benefit Google (or benefits its competition.) Google produced many high-quality products which it gives away nearly for free, many that the general public didn't realize existed, or could be used in such a way. Google is the shining white knight of the Internet.

Because of this, Google, and it's various websites have grown to extend to nearly every portion of Internet and dominate nearly every field in which that they participate. Blogger a popular blog network, and the one on which you are probably reading this post, is owned and maintained by Google. Youtube is also owned (but not managed) by Google. Together with Google search and Google news, these make up a large portion of information disseminated by the Internet. Think back to the previous national election: which man won the presidential election? The man who's campaign made the most effective use of Internet media, including Youtube videos and political blogs. Think further, when people want to learn about a current event such as a political event, where do they turn? As often as not they use Google to search for information about it. The fact of the matter is, Google is coming to more and more dominate where we get our information. With rise of the Internet, and especially with the collapse of print media, Google is becoming, more and more, the gateway for politics business and current events. I'm not claiming that Google has, or will, even ever will consider, abusing its position, but what I am saying is this: Fast is coming the time that if Google did abuse its position in this way, we wouldn't even be able to know.

As it stands, Google has abused it's position in a number of less egregious ways in the past. Among Google's abuses:

• Violating on a grand scale International Copyright law protecting authors


• Deliberately censoring search results to cater to certain political interests


• Chronic negligence towards vendors and consumers using both Adsense and Google Checkout services

Despite these problems, as far as huge multinationals go, Google is positively benevolent (compare them to the scum sucking IP abuser that is Monsanto.) However Google has proved itself at times to disregard the public Interest for it's own profit and as acquired such power that such abuse could have far-reaching effects and could ruin careless or merely ignorant individuals who have otherwise done nothing wrong. I'm not suggesting people boycott Google, (though that's become a more popular option with some) far from; given Google's increase in power, it is more important than ever to remain involved. What I am suggesting is that people become aware of how their data is used online and how the large companies that control a large portion of the Internet (Google, Facebook, Amazon, Microsoft, Yahoo!, etc.) can and sometimes do abuse their power. Remember:

1. Defend your privacy


2. Always cross check your sources


3. Don't trust monopolies, even the good one

One final note: As many of my friends and family know, tend to count myself as a Libertarian. However, unlike many such 'Libertarians' I do not do so because of a faith in the magical properties of the free market to preserve liberty and economic justice and prosperity. While I do believe that the free-market of far superior in both areas to the tyranny of the masses or the tyranny of the few that result from both Socialism and less ambitious 'welfare state' systems, I believe that defense of liberty against tyranny lies neither strength nor weakness of the state or corporate interests, but at the resolve and ability of the individual to defends his rights against the incursions of powerful parties whether they be states or monopolies. I am above all an individualist and as such I strongly recommend every individual to be ever mindful of his rights. If it should happen that your rights are never infringed, it mean not that you wasted your time in defending them, but that you did a sufficient job.

Thank You
Andrew Stine

Busking

Ok, it's been a while since my last post, but I've been rather busy. There's been work, X-Collegiates, and various side projects on which I'm always working. These include: finally getting the wireless working to a satisfactory level in the apartment, as well as setting up a nice Squid cache and a music player and reworking my website's code-base. Most recently, I've embarked on an enterprise of moderately greater ambition.

The linked-to website is currently just a place holder, but the description should tell you what it's about. Essentially, the idea of cold asking for money on the Internet has always fascinated me. I know that it has worked spectacularly well in the past, albeit, intermittently. So, I felt I might create a project to help folks with it. Think: MySpace with a PayPal sticker, only more attractive. There seems to be a big demand, (and given the worsening economy, an increasing demand,) so I shouldn't have too much trouble getting it off the ground. I'm actively working on it and a proto-type should be up in a few weeks.

Up and coming: no guarantees.

RSS for Dummies

This post is for my friends who I've been nagging for months, but still don't want to figure out RSS or Atom feeds. It's about what, precisely, they are and how to use them to browse the Internet, not how to write them or incorporate them into your website.

Most of the websites which you visit have content that changes. Every blog, webcomic, newsite, photosharing site, Youtube variant, or MySpace clone that you visit as content which changes on a regular basis, and you visit each of these websites on a regular basis to keep up with that content. You visit each of them in sequence, waiting for them to load, to see if they have anything new. Sometimes they do, sometimes they don't. Sometimes your friend's blog has a new post, sometimes it doesn't, but you don't know until you've checked. You have to check every single site you patronize and if that's a lot of sites, you could spend a lot of time browsing the Internet, hours even. It can eat into you life. It's even worse if you have a slow connection and each page you visit takes a long time to load. It's simply not an efficient way to get things done.

What would be nice, is if you could have a program that would check each of your favorite websites for you, and tell if they've updated or not. Or, even better, download the changes for you so that you don't have to. Well, if something seems like it would be a good idea, chances are someone has already invented it, and this is no exception. RSS and Atom feeds are a very simple means of accomplishing this, and they are widely used.

The way RSS works is this: It is a little bit of code, <?xml version="1.0"?> <rss version="2.0"> <channel> <title>Liftoff News</title> <link>http://liftoff.msfc.nasa.gov/</link> <description>Liftoff to Space Exploration.</description> <language>en-us</language> <pubDate>Tue, 10 Jun 2003 04:00:00 GMT</pubDate> <lastBuildDate>Tue, 10 Jun 2003 09:41:01 GMT</lastBuildDate> <docs>http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss</docs> <generator>Weblog Editor 2.0</generator> <managingEditor>editor@example.com</managingEditor> <webMaster>webmaster@example.com</webMaster> <item> <title>Star City</title> <link>http://liftoff.msfc.nasa.gov/news/2003/news-starcity.asp</link> <description>How do Americans get ready to work with Russians aboard the International Space Station? They take a crash course in culture, language and protocol at Russia's <a href="http://howe.iki.rssi.ru/GCTC/gctc_e.htm">Star City</a>.</description> <pubDate>Tue, 03 Jun 2003 09:39:21 GMT</pubDate> <guid>http://liftoff.msfc.nasa.gov/2003/06/03.html#item573</guid> </item> <item> <description>Sky watchers in Europe, Asia, and parts of Alaska and Canada will experience a <a href="http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2003/30may_solareclipse.htm">partial eclipse of the Sun</a> on Saturday, May 31st.</description> <pubDate>Fri, 30 May 2003 11:06:42 GMT</pubDate> <guid>http://liftoff.msfc.nasa.gov/2003/05/30.html#item572</guid> </item> <item> <title>The Engine That Does More</title> <link>http://liftoff.msfc.nasa.gov/news/2003/news-VASIMR.asp</link> <description>Before man travels to Mars, NASA hopes to design new engines that will let us fly through the Solar System more quickly. The proposed VASIMR engine would do that.</description> <pubDate>Tue, 27 May 2003 08:37:32 GMT</pubDate> <guid>http://liftoff.msfc.nasa.gov/2003/05/27.html#item571</guid> </item> <item> <title>Astronauts' Dirty Laundry</title> <link>http://liftoff.msfc.nasa.gov/news/2003/news-laundry.asp</link> <description>Compared to earlier spacecraft, the International Space Station has many luxuries, but laundry facilities are not one of them. Instead, astronauts have other options.</description> <pubDate>Tue, 20 May 2003 08:56:02 GMT</pubDate> <guid>http://liftoff.msfc.nasa.gov/2003/05/20.html#item570</guid> </item> </channel> </rss> usually saved in its own file on a website which specifies all of the websites's recent changes. It contains a list of the changes, plus, usually, the content of that change. Each of a newsite's recent articles are often listed in an RSS file and often the articles themselves are saved there as well. The website maintainer is responsible for keeping the RSS file, called a feed, up to date, but this is usually done for him with whatever program he uses to maintain the site.

A program, called an aggregator, can now check the website for updates, by simply looking for changes to the feed. If there are changes, it can then download them and notify the user. All that is needed to get it to do this is to be provided with the URL of the feed.

Most websites which use feeds have a little link or buttons on the front page which shows you this.

You simply right click on the button or link, select 'copy link,' and paste it into your aggregator.

In addition, some browsers, such as Mozilla Firefox, can tell if a website has a feed attached to it and it will tell you with an icon in the address bar:

Of course, in order to do this, you will need an aggregator. Fortunately, there are many options. The easiest is just to use an online service such as, Bloglines, Google Reader, Live.com, or Yahoo. You simply sign up, enter the feeds you want, and instead of having to visit multiple websites, now you will only need to visit one. The advantage of an online reader, is that is works no matter what machine you connect from, it will always be available. Also, it will update whle your computer is unpowered, so it will always be up to date, even if you've just turned on your machine.

There is also the option of using an aggregator installed on your own machine. popular aggregators include:
NewzCrawler - RSS News Feed Reader
FeedDemon - RSS News Feed Reader
Omea Reader - RSS News Feed Reader
You can also work is in with your browser with browser extensions.

Using an aggregator to read RSS feeds on can save you hours on the Internet. Considering that it only takes a few minutes to set one up, it is well worth your time to use one.