1. That's years old, like 5 or 6 years old. They pulled out of China recently: Maybe late, but it's still a stunning expression of principle.

2. Mitnick's an infantile dorkasaures.

Then I guess that Eric Schmidt wouldn't mind of Google's trade secrets were somehow spilled onto the Internet for all of his competitors to see.

Really Eric... what are you hiding?

Maybe you shouldn't be doing any of this stuff that you don't want people to know about in the first place?

I think the point is that putting something on the Internet for everyone to see implies that it will be seen. It is like putting a "secret" on a Facebook page and expecting no-one to notice.

Consider the people who are "shocked" that something that they put on a Facebook page is seen by an employer.

Yes, he said this, but it looks a lot worse when taken out of context. Here's the rest of the quote:

"If you have something that you don't want anyone to know, maybe you shouldn't be doing it in the first place, but if you really need that kind of privacy, the reality is that search engines including Google do retain this information for some time, and it's important, for example that we are all subject in the United States to the Patriot Act."

In other words, the discussion was about Google's services, and the privacy that you can reasonable expect. He was simply warning people that data are, in fact, saved by Google and most other web services. More, the companies cannot guarantee privacy, because the government can demand access to these data at any time - no warrant required.

It's disingenuous for google to start talking Patriot act when talking privacy... People understand that different privacy requirements apply to the govt. vs. a corporation.

However. This is why I don't have google accounts or facebook. Not only are they pretty cavalier about privacy to start, they change their minds a lot. Often without telling you, or in ways that have unintended consequences.

The only way to keep things private is not to post them electronically. If it's out there, it will be found by people who are looking, eventually. In this way privacy is sorta like virginity, once lost, you can't get it back. Interestingly people often give their privacy away at roughly the same time as their virginity... Because as teens or 20's they start posting every little thing... like how drunk they got, how often, and how they made it homw even though they couldn't walk straight. 10 years on, when an employer does a search? "They were irresponsible then, what has changed?" I have a younger friend that this is happening to. He's had facebook since it started really, and he still posts his parties and latest bed conquests and such. He just doesn't seem to get that people will look.

Er, so if you're a young woman trying to escape the tender mercies of a radical Muslim family, and you're depending on a Gmail account to coordinate actions with your friends, then according to Google, you just shouldn't be doing that. Be a good little Muslim, put the hijab back on, and submit to your honor killing.

What baffles me isn't that these killings happen.
I got past that a long time ago.

What baffles me is that ex muslim women aren't carrying firearms to shoot the people who come to kill them.

Did they not read the damn book?
Have they not HEARD of honor killing?
Is this shit a total surprise to them?

If "I" were an ex muslim, I'd have a double locked iron door and both shotgun in my home and a sidearm on my hip at all times.

If I were a woman deciding to leave islam, the FIRST thing I'd do is get rid of the relative that was obligated to kill me.

SwissArmyD writes:

However. This is why I don't have google accounts or facebook. Not only are they pretty cavalier about privacy to start, they change their minds a lot. Often without telling you, or in ways that have unintended consequences.

Such as?

Try this one:
from WashPost Tech

bearing in mind that they fix things after complaint rather than having changes be opt-in. The problem with their position is that they don't roll out new code and then advertize it's use. They simply make new changes apply to everyone, and then you have to go back and change all your settings.

The blather over FB's changes is also ridiculous.

This latest thing?

Lets a few (three, so far, last I read) hand-vetted websites show you and your FB friends stuff that they could already see on Facebook.

And use that same data to personalize their content for you. While you're logged into FB, and only while you're logged in.

99% of people's privacy-freakouts on Facebook come from reading someone else's hysterical and halfassed status update rather than the actual announcements.

Such as?

Posted by: Patrick at May 5, 2010 11:40 AM

Have you happened to notice the Google Buzz in GMail? Call it gwitter. ;-)

I work on a tech site. I gmail back and forth with other techies and staff. Somehow the day it started, other techies were listed as "following me". I've posted a few time in it, in response to comments. But I still haven't figured how to opt out of it.