Tag: why you so creepy

Google’s breaking their social contract

I’d say I started noticing a change in the keyword stats reported on my websites about six months or so ago.  Instead of seeing all of the keywords and search terms people used to arrive at my websites, most of the search terms were showing up as “Unknown search terms” in my WordPress Jetpack stats plugin and “(not provided)” in Google Analytics.

Apparently this is all due to a number of changes with Google.  As Google pushes more people to be logged in or stay logged in to their Google, Gmail, or Google plus accounts, the more their searches will be done over SSL.  This has the “side effect” of making their searches opaque to website owners.  However, that same data is of course available to Google themselves.  I say “side effect” because I’m not so sure this is unintended, rather than one of their actual goals.

Why then do I accuse Google of breaking their social contract?  Here I am, an owner of multiple domains who has been running Google Analytics tracking bugs in all of my sites since their various inceptions.  The entire point of doing so is that I might be able to better understand the search terms and patterns of people coming to my sites, with an eye towards improving traffic.  In exchange literally allowing Google to insert code inside my websites, they were supposed to help with these insights.  Insights they are no longer providing.

I’m not so naive as to think Google ever promised or contracted to provide this information to me.  I’ve never read their Terms of Service and never plan to.  When every piece of software includes click-shrink-wrapped terms of service, it’s impossible read, comprehend, or provide knowing consent to these things.  All I can go on here is that I’ve continued to let Google inside my websites – and they’re not giving me the very thing I had been lead to believe would be provided in exchange.

That said, Google Webmaster Tools is still pretty useful.

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Dear Google, this IS my name

Dear Google,

Your user policies apparently require anyone using Google Plus to provide proof of an established online identity or have my Google Plus account deleted.  I have been using the name “MakerBlock” for two and a half years now.  I probably have as many friends and acquaintances who know me by this, my chosen name, as I have friends and acquaintances who know me by the arbitrary name chosen for me.  In fact, when it comes to an online identity, I’d say 99% of the people who know me don’t even know other names for me.

Here’s part of the problem with your online identify policies.  I’m not trying to be mysterious.  I’ve had online cyber stalkers before and, it is very likely I will again.  It’s actually becoming a more frequent problem for people with professions similar to mine. If this website, my Twitter account, or my Google Plus profile became associated with my given name, I’d probably need to soon abandon one or more of them.

Aside from safety issues, there are other totally legitimate reasons I’d want to use a non-given name for any of these accounts.  I do enjoy a little slice of anonymity and freedom that comes with not having the people I work with or for know about this website or online social networks.  It’s nice to have a place to vent about work, employer, and/or client frustrations.

In any case, why do you even care about my given name?  You know my IP address, which websites I own, you know where I live, probably all of my e-mail addresses.  You are in my phone, have my credit card number, and know where I work.  Why, for heaven’s sake, do you want to take this little piece away from me?

I have friends I would like to connect with through Google Plus, but associating Google Plus with my given name would essentially mean I wouldn’t be able to use Google Plus.  Your policy notice indicated that if I don’t appeal by 7/11/2012 you’ll delete my account.

MakerBlock IS my name and if I can’t use it online for Google Plus then I guess you need to delete my Google Plus data.

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Google, why you so creepy?

This is actually my second post with the same subject/topic/title.  :/

As a joke I did a google search for “cell phone for elderly” because a friend of mine has this ridiculous habit of taking pictures with his iPhone UPSIDE down.  Sure, it’s easy enough to turn it back upside right – but wouldn’t it just make more sense to simply hold the phone correctly in the first place?

Anyhow, now all the google ads I see are for cell phones for the elderly.  Great.

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Has Google become evil?

I’m not a fan of Facebook or Google Plus.  However, Google’s new “real name” policy is really getting on my nerves.  My Google Plus account is under the pseudonym of “MakerBlock,” so I might as well save them the trouble of suspending my accounts and just delete it now.

Eric Schmidt recently publicly stated Google Plus isn’t a social networking service, it’s an identity service.  The justification for this position was that Google Plus would be better able to serve us by knowing who we really are as well as ranking downwards those people who really are evil.  But, really, Google’s business is selling advertising to those people most likely to be interested based on their research of those people by studying, on a grand scale, every aspect of their lives. 12

I get that the person who logs into Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, or Google Plus aren’t the real customers, that we’re just the product.  This makes sense and, in some cases, seems a fair trade.  It’s a funny line these businesses must walk, however.  Cater too much to the advertisers, and you lose your audience.  Cater too much to the audience, and perhaps you’ll lose advertisers.  I understand, from a business perspective, wanting to know as much about your users as possible.  But, after a certain point it just gets creepy.

No one was really offended by Facebook’s policies until relatively recently – a few data breaches here, a few account suspensions there.  And then they stopped people from treating the data those people created (or consumed) as portable.  People were fine with Google Plus until Google really started enforcing this position.

I suppose, for me, the fundamental issue may just be respect.  I think Google and Facebook have lost respect for their users.  While their business models clearly require observation of the user, it is the difference between watching animals on a wild life preserve versus watching animals in the zoo.  When those policies start to close in around the user – and they can start to see the high walls and feel like they are being watched – that’s when people start to grumble and leave.

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  1. I really doubt Google would dispute that description. [↩]
  2. Hell, it’s probably in their marketing materials… [↩]

Facebook, why you so creepy?

I’m always shocked when Facebook shows me people I actually know as possible friends.  I almost never use the site and when I do it’s to get someone’s e-mail address so I can e-mail them directly.  Somehow they populate that list with people I rarely speak to and have zero public connections to.  I mean, I don’t even know of these people through anyone else, so I don’t get how they’re able to suggest them.

Shudder.

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Facebook, why are you so damned creepy?

It seems every time I visit a website it already knows my name.

When I walk into a favorite lunch hang out and I’m greeted by name, that’s nice.

When I walk into a store I’ve never been in before and they greet me by name and drop the names of a few friends…  well, I get a creepy icky feeling and want to leave.

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